Keeping the brain healthy may depend on more than memory exercises and genetics. A new study suggests that staying physically strong could also help delay dementia.
Researchers have discovered that frailty may speed up the development of dementia, even in people whose brains show relatively few signs of the disease.
The research was carried out by the University of Queensland and published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. Scientists say frailty should be viewed as an important health marker rather than simply an unavoidable part of aging.
Frailty develops when the body’s strength and ability to recover gradually decline. Older adults with frailty are more vulnerable to falls, illness, disability, and hospital stays. The new study indicates that this decline in physical resilience may also affect the brain.
To investigate the connection, researchers examined long-term data from more than 1,600 participants in the Memory and Aging Project in the United States. The volunteers were followed for 24 years, giving scientists a rare opportunity to study changes over much of later life.
People who were frail developed dementia around two to three years earlier than those who were not frail. Even more striking, people who had relatively few brain abnormalities usually linked to dementia lost much of that advantage if they were frail, developing dementia five to six years earlier than expected.
Normally, fewer disease-related brain changes are associated with a lower dementia risk or a later diagnosis. However, frailty appeared to remove much of this protection. Only participants with low levels of frailty seemed to benefit from having healthier brains.
The researchers also examined whether genetics influenced the results. They found that the APOE ε4 gene, a well-known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, did not change the relationship between frailty and dementia. This means improving physical health could be important regardless of genetic risk.
The findings also showed that the association between frailty and earlier dementia was present in both men and women, although it appeared stronger in men. The reasons are not yet fully understood and will require further investigation.
Experts say one of the most encouraging aspects of the study is that frailty is often manageable. Resistance exercise, healthy eating, adequate protein intake, and staying socially active can improve strength and reduce frailty in many older adults.
This study highlights the importance of treating the whole person rather than focusing only on brain scans or memory tests. While it does not prove that reducing frailty will prevent dementia, it strongly suggests that maintaining physical fitness may become an important part of dementia prevention.
Future clinical studies will be needed to determine whether programs that reduce frailty can also delay the onset of cognitive decline.
If you care about brain health, please read studies about inflammation that may actually slow down cognitive decline in older people, and low vitamin D may speed up cognitive decline.
For more health information, please see recent studies about common exercises that could protect against cognitive decline, and results showing that this MIND diet may protect your cognitive function, prevent dementia.
Source: The University of Queensland.
