Exercising in middle age not only keeps the weight down and the heart healthy but can also cut the risk of suffering from Alzheimer's disease, particularly in high risk people, Swedish researchers said on October 4.
Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that people in mid-life who exercised at least twice a week had about a 60 percent lower risk of suffering from dementia than more sedentary people.
"This is the first study to show this long-term relation between physical activity and dementia later in life," Dr Miia Kivipelto, of the Aging Research Centre at the institute, said in an interview.
The biggest impact was in people who had a genetic susceptibility to dementia, according to the study published in The Lancet Neurology journal.
"It seems that physical activity had an even more pronounced effect among those with the susceptibility gene apoe4, the most important risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and dementia," Kivipelto added.