Study shows that regular exercise 'could benefit people with early dementia'

Research has suggested that taking regular exercise might benefit people with early signs of dementia.

The discovery, published in the journal Neurology, investigated people with early signs of vascular dementia.

According to a clinical case study carried out on two groups of elderly people, it found out that those who followed a regular exercise schedule had a small improvement in overall thinking skills compared with those who did not exercise.

Though the results suggested that the benefit might only last as long as people continued with an exercise plan.

Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia, after Alzheimer's disease.

The disease which occurs when there are problems with the supply of blood to the brain causes memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving and language.

70 people with an average age of 74 participated in the study.

35 of them took part in a one-hour exercise class three times a week for a period of six-month.

While the other 35 were given information on their condition and told to follow a healthy diet, but were not told to exercise.

The two groups were examined before the study, after the study and six months later for overall thinking skills, executive function skills such as planning and organizing and how well they could carry out their daily personal routine.

According to the results obtained, those who exercised had a small improvement on the test of overall thinking skills - improving by 1.7 points - in comparison with those who did not exercise.

Speaking on the result, the author of the study, Teresa Liu-Ambrose, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, said: 

"This result, while modest, was similar to that seen in previous studies testing the use of drugs for people with vascular cognitive impairment.

"However, the difference was less than what is considered to be the minimal clinically important difference of three points."

The result also found out that, six months after the exercise group stopped having exercise, their scores became tallied with those who did not exercise.

The result showed that there was no improvement on executive function skills or daily activities.

However, the exercise group showed better blood pressure control and there were improvements on how far they could walk in six minutes.

According to researchers, this was important because high blood pressure increased the risk of dementia.