Among a group of Swedish women, those with high cardiovascular fitness at middle age were 88% less likely to develop dementia...
...decades later, compared with women with moderate cardiovascular fitness, researchers reported online in Neurology.
“These findings are exciting because it’s possible that improving people’s cardiovascular fitness in middle age could delay or even prevent them from developing dementia,” said researcher Helena Hörder, PhD, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
“However, this study does not show cause and effect between cardiovascular fitness and dementia, it only shows an association,” Dr. Hörder added. “More research is needed to see if improved fitness could have a positive effect on the risk of dementia and also to look at when during a lifetime a high fitness level is most important.”
The study included 191 women, with an average age of 50 years, whose fitness level was gauged through a bicycle exercise test in 1968. Among the participants, 40 met the criteria for high physical fitness; 92 were classified as having medium fitness, and 59 were considered to have low fitness.
During dementia testing over the subsequent 44 years, 44 of the women developed dementia. This included 25% of the women with medium fitness, 32% of the women with low fitness, and 45% of the women who could not finish the bicycle test because of high blood pressure, chest pain, or other cardiovascular problems.
Just 5% of the women with a high fitness level at midlife developed dementia—and those who did developed it an average of 11 years later than women who were moderately fit at midlife (age 90 vs age 79).
“This indicates that negative cardiovascular processes may be happening in midlife that could increase the risk of dementia much later in life,” Dr. Hörder said.
Researchers highlighted several study limitations, including the small number of women involved, the fact that all participants were from Sweden, and that fitness levels were measured just once.
