Physical Activity vs Alzheimer's Dementia Part 2

Dumb Kids Prefer Candy Over Fancy Green Salad
Dumb Kinds Playing Catch On Freeway Get Squashed
Dear King Philip Come Over For Good Spaghetti
Remember that?  Ring any bells?

I attempted to memorize taxonomy for a Biology 101 class while an undergraduate.  I was just happy to distinguish between live & dead while the professor wanted to know Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.  And so it is there are lumpers and there are splitters.  The former are the big picture guys.  The latter are the detail oriented ones.  Me?  I think it's pretty obvious I'm more the former.  However, I've developed the ability to focus on minutiae, too, since you want your physician to be detail-oriented, right?

Well, along the lines of exercise & physical activity, I'm perfectly happy when my patients report that they're doing something.  After all, some sort of activity is better than none.  But in a similar fashion, devotees of aerobic exercise will extol the benefits of running, riding a bicycle or climbing stairs, compared to those who tend to focus more on resistance exercise & supersizing their musculature.  So I thought I'd follow up on last Friday's post in which total daily physical activity besides one's exercise routine had an impact on development of Alzheimer's disease.  

Serendipitously, a study was published just 2 days ago in the Archives of Internal Medicine concluding that while twice weekly aerobic training for 6 months improved fitness, twice weekly resistance training compared to twice weekly balance & toning improved cognitive function in several different domains.  In order to reach their conclusions, the authors followed 77 women average 74yo w/mild cognitive impairment who were randomized to the various exercise regimes for 6 months as noted above.

The bottom line, at least from a lumper like me?  Any exercise, aerobic or resistance, is good for your mind.  Which reminds me of the old saying, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste", which has recently been perverted into "A waist is a terrible thing to mind" given our predilection towards overweight & obesity.  Don't let this happen to you.  Get out there and do something, anything, today!  Tomorrow!  And everyday!

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