Dementia: Brisk walking cuts down risk by more than 50%, finds study

Dementia is a syndrome that leads to deterioration in cognitive function. It is an umbrella term which includes a number of health ramifications that affect memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language, and judgment.

The seventh leading cause of death among all diseases, dementia can be prevented by brisk walking, a study has found and has generated a new hope around the management and treatment of this health complication.

Read: Type 1.5 diabetes-How is it different from type 1, type 2 diabetes?

A new research study published in the JAMA Neurology, has found a link between daily step count and incidence of dementia.

"The findings in this study suggest that accumulating more steps per day just under the popular threshold of 10 000 steps per day and performing steps at higher intensity may be associated with lower risk of dementia onset," the researchers of the study have said.

This cohort based study was done on 78,430 adults in the UK of which 35040 were male and the rest were females.

The study took into account incidental steps which is less than 40 steps per minute, purposeful steps which is 40 steps per minute and peak 30 minute cadence which is mean steps per minute recorded for the 30 highest, not necessarily consecutive, minutes in a day.

As per the researchers, brisk walking between 3,800 and 9,800 steps is ideal to reduce the risk of dementia.

The study found that participants between the ages of 40 and 79 years of age who walked 9,826 steps daily were 50% less likely to develop dementia within seven years.

The researchers also found that people who walked with purpose, which covered 40 steps per minute, could actually reap the most benefits with just 6,315 steps. These people could cut down the risk of dementia by 57%.

People who walked 3,800 steps per day reduced the risk of dementia by 25%.

“It is a brisk walking activity, like a power walk,” study coauthor Borja del Pozo Cruz, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark, and senior researcher in health sciences for the University of Cadiz in Spain told CNN.

Usually people who have a sitting-mode life hesitate to embark on the walking journey with the apprehension that walking is then beneficial when the step count goes above 10,000 steps.

Debunking this myth, the researchers have given a new reason to start walking. Walking just 40% of the 10k steps rule, can drop the risk of dementia by 25%. The more you walk, the lower is your risk for dementia.

As per the WHO estimates, currently more than 55 million people live with dementia worldwide, and there are nearly 10 million new cases every year.

According to a Lancet study, about 153 million people will have dementia by 2050. The study has said that potential risk factors like smoking, obesity, and high blood sugar might drive the health complication in 7 million of these cases.

"We estimated that the number of people with dementia would increase from 57·4 (95% uncertainty interval 50·4–65·1) million cases globally in 2019 to 152·8 (130·8–175·9) million cases in 2050," the Lancet study says.

The common symptoms of dementia are:

• forgetfulness
• losing track of time
• feeling lost even in familiar places
• confusion
• difficulty in communication
• requiring assistance even for doing basic chores
• behavioural changes
• difficulty in walking

Did you know that walking style is a potential indicator of the onset of dementia. A research study has found that people above 65 years of age who walk 5% slower or more each while also showing declining cognitive function are more likely to develop dementia.

The study published in JAMA Network is based on a group of Americans over 65 and Australians over 70 years of age. The participants were observed for 7 years and during this time they were asked to take cognitive tests and were assessed.