Growing old no longer carries that image of a life with limitations and few activities. Quite the contrary, as more and more people are active and acquiring healthy habits over the years.
But it is still necessary to know how to balance this new moment. In addition to an active body, you must have an active brain. In this way, aging happens in a healthier and more beneficial way.
Based on this, new research published in the journal In Neurology confirmed that this balance also reduces the risk of diseases that cause chronic degeneration, such as Alzheimer’s.
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Prevention in middle age
According to the study, it is necessary to start preventing yourself in middle age (35 years) against these diseases.
The inclusion of activities such as reading, painting, playing an instrument, sewing, in addition to physical exercises are examples seen by researchers as capable of reducing the risk of damage to brain function.
To analyze whether these activities are capable of helping the human body function properly, the scientists followed 800 women in Sweden for 44 years.
As a result, the researchers saw that the higher the level of physical activity and habits that can help the mind, the lower the risk of dementia.
Importance of being well physically and mentally
According to the authors of the study, doing only physical activities or just mental activities brings benefits, but the ideal is to add the two.
This acts as a sum, since those who only take care of the physical body may be losing the benefits to the mind. Likewise, staying active only in cognitive activities may not be so good for the functioning of the body in general.
Then we highlight the most relevant data observed in the survey:
Exercise the mind
In the study, participants with a certain frequency of mental activity were 46% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
And also 34% less chance of having some other dementia compared to women who did not perform this type of activity.
Physical activities
Participants who did more physical activity were 52% less likely to develop vascular dementia (reduced brain capacity due to cell damage).
In addition, 56% of participants were less likely to develop mixed dementia (more than one brain disease) when compared to women considered inactive, that is, who do not exercise at all.
Therefore, physical activity can also help in mental health , because when you do some kind of physical activity, it also improves the health of blood vessels.
