Login | May 06, 2025
Can exercise help lessen the risk of dementia?
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: May 5, 2025
Over the past decade there’s been a considerable amount of research that’s gone into studying several different theses on how we might reduce the risks (onset, severity, and mortality related issues) associated with dementia.
Now one of the more popular theses here involves the use of exercise as a kind of “preventative medicine” in the fight against this malady, and lately more and more of these exercise-related dementia studies are in agreement that exercise does have an impact on the aforementioned risks associated with dementia.
So let’s take a brief look at a few of these studies and then try to ascertain just why exercise appears to have such an impact on dementia.
Okay, one of the most recent research study, “Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity at any Dose Reduces All-Cause Dementia Risk Regardless of Frailty Status,” published in the March 2025 Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, concluded that, “Our results suggest engaging in any additional amount of MVPA [moderate-to-vigorous physical activity] reduces dementia risk, with the highest benefit appearing among individuals with no MVPA.”
In this study the researchers found that even small amounts of physical activity can have an enormous impact on the development of dementia - as little as 35 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity/week (this compared to no exercise at all) was associated with a 41% lower risk of developing dementia over a four-year follow-up period.
What’s more, they also found that such small amounts of physical activity even reduced dementia risks for frail older adults.
Another recent study concerning this topic, “Physical activity linked to lower risk of dementia, sleep disorders, other diseases,” released on Feb. 27, 2025 by the American Academy of Neurology, suggests that individuals who participate in moderate to vigorous physical activities could be less apt to develop dementia, stroke, anxiety, depression and sleep disorders.
Even more interesting is the fact that the study found that the more sitting time an individual did, the more likely they were to develop one of the aforementioned diseases.
Then there’s this study, “Physical activity as a protective factor for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease: systematic review, meta-analysis and quality assessment of cohort and case–control studies,” published in the Oct.-Nov. 2024 issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, where the researchers determined that, “Maintaining or initiating regular PA [physical activity], regardless of intensity, after dementia diagnosis was associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality. Lifestyle modifications promoting PA might offer survival benefits for individuals with dementia.”
Now these are just several of the recent studies that have examined the correlation between exercise and either the onset, severity and/or mortality involved with dementia.
And the list of studies concerning this topic is far bigger if you were to dig back a few years further.
According to the Alzheimer’s Society, which has done a metadata analysis of this topic, “Research has shown that people who take regular exercise may be up to 20% less likely to develop dementia than those who don't take regular exercise. This came from some analysis that combined the results of 58 studies into exercise and dementia.”
So the big question here, at least in my mind anyway, is what is it about physical activity that seems to be impacting these various components (onset, severity, mortality) associated with dementia?
Well, scientists in the know claim that exercise influences a host of important factors that can impact dementia: It improves blood flow to the brain, it reduces inflammation, it stimulates brain cell growth, it strengthens neuron connections, it can improve brain functions that affect hearing, and it can reduce high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and deleterious protein buildups in the brain that are linked to Alzheimer’s.
And if that’s not enough, a couple of the more firmly established benefits that exercise provides us with also seems to have carryover when it comes to impacting dementia.
Indeed, exercise can both help people to improve their thought processes and help to improve emotional health and well being.
Having parents who both developed dementia in their early 80s - and both of whom did little to no exercise 10 or more years prior to their dementia diagnosis - I have to say that this one hits pretty darned close to home.
And while exercise has always been a part of my life…this info just adds a little more oomph to my workout motivation.