In the study followed 800 women from 1968 and onwards. It is one of the first in which the three most common demensformerna has been studied; Alzheimer’s, vascular and blanddemens. During the 44 years developed 194 of the participants with dementia.
– Women with very hjärnstimulerande activities had a 34 percent lower risk of developing dementia, and 46 per cent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s than women with few hjärnstimulerande activities, ” says Jenna Najar, who conducted the study at the AgeCap, Centre for ådrande and health at the Gothenburg university.
earlier, it is known that physical activity can prevent the disease. The study looked also at the women’s level of physical activity, and a result was that those who enabled themselves very had a 52 percent lower risk of developing dementia caused by vascular diseases in the brain.
the women who devoted themselves to much hjärnstimulerande activities a better protection, regardless of how physically active they were. Even those who engaged in physical activities, ran less risk, regardless of how mentally active they had been. The results are independent of other risk factors for dementia, such as high blood pressure, low education and smoking.
” What is unique about our study is that we looked at the leisure activities separately which makes the results more reliable.
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such a long observation period is several. Previous research has shown that sjukdomsprocesserna for dementia begins 20-30 years before the disease breaks out and an early sign of the disease processes is precisely the low level of activity. With such a long follow-up time, and lower average age will reduce the risk that women’s activity rates in 1968 were affected by the early disease processes.
Jenna Najar. Photo: Ragnhild Larsson/Götebors University
– the Theories behind why the cultural activities are good primarily based on the theory of cognitive reserves as a mean to regularly perform exercises that train your cognitive abilities, like reading, singing and playing instruments, can protect against the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The brain generates some form of resilience against dementia.
– When it comes to physical activity, we believe that there are similar effects in cardiac and vascular disease then we have seen that physical activity protects against the more vascular forms of dementia. We believe that training has a positive effect also on the vessels in the brain and that it can prevent the disease.
to point out that despite the fact that the discovery of a strong link between physical and cultural activities and the development of dementia so it is not possible to establish the causal relationship one hundred percent.
– We can not find out the exact mechanisms and the precise causal link, but we see a link. By implementing different studies get same result, it also strengthens our theories and results.
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