Higher fruit intake, cholesterol-lowering drugs also associated with reduced risk, researchers say
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 3, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Running more than 15 miles a week may reduce the risk of dying from Alzheimer's disease, new research suggests.
Walking can help, too, if the amount of energy expended is equivalent to running more than 15 miles weekly, the study found.
"Exercise seems to prevent the shrinkage [in the brain] that occurs with age," said study researcher Paul Williams, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. And preserving brain volume may be why vigorous exercise helps reduce the risk of Alzheimer's death, according to Williams.
Williams' study also found that taking cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins was linked to reduced risk of death from Alzheimer's disease, as did eating three or more pieces of fruit daily.
However, this study was only able to find associations between all of these factors and the risk of death from Alzheimer's disease. The study wasn't designed to prove whether or not running, walking, eating fruit or taking statins caused a decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease.
The study was published online recently in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
About 5 million Americans age 65 and older have Alzheimer's disease, which causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior, according to the Alzheimer's Association.
The study included more than 153,000 runners and walkers who have been participating in the National Runners' and Walkers' Health Studies. Men and women were recruited for the studies beginning in the early 1990s.
Williams followed them for an average of almost 12 years and tracked the number who died of Alzheimer's disease. Over the follow-up, there were 175 deaths from Alzheimer's disease.
In the study, those who ran more than 15.3 miles weekly had a 40 percent risk reduction in death from Alzheimer's. Running between 7.7 and 15.3 miles was linked with a 25 percent risk reduction, but Williams said that finding wasn't statistically significant.
The amount of running needed to lower risk substantially is about double the current exercise recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC exercise guidelines are equivalent to running 4.6 to 7.7 miles a week, according to Williams.
source : Study Links Running to Lower Alzheimer's Death Risk
