Researchers have found that staying physically healthy by performing home chores can reduce the risk of developing dementia.
Adults who ‘often’ vacuum, iron, and take out the trash are one-fifth less likely to develop the memory-robbing disease than those who don’t bother.
According to Chinese scientists, all benefits to the brain stem from maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Some forms of housework, such as mowing the lawn, are already recognized by experts as aerobic exercise.
Professor Huan Song, the study’s lead author, stated, “Our study indicated that engaging in healthy physical and mental activities more regularly may lessen the incidence of dementia.”
Additional research is required to verify our findings.
However, our findings suggest that implementing these basic lifestyle modifications may be advantageous.
Decades of research have demonstrated that regular mental, physical, and social activity keeps the brain healthy in old age.
Professor Song and her team wished to learn more about the significance of a variety of lifestyle choices in the development of the condition, which affects 900,000 Britons and 5.8 million Americans.
Using data from the UK Biobank – a repository of medical and genetic data — researchers monitored 501,376,000,000 Britons. Contributors often answer lifestyle-related questions.
At the beginning of the study, the middle-aged participants were questioned about their physical activities, such as the frequency with which they performed housekeeping and exercised.
In addition, participants were asked how frequently they see their loved ones and use their phones, computer, and television.
During the eleven-year research, 5,185 individuals got dementia.
The findings, published in Neurology, indicate that the majority of physical and mental activities are associated with dementia.
Those who performed chores ‘often’ were 21% less likely to develop dementia than those who did it the least.
In contrast, persons who frequently exercised had a 35% lower probability of being diagnosed with dementia than their less active peers.
And those who saw their loved ones daily had a 15% decreased risk compared to those who saw their loved ones infrequently.
The scientists also determined dementia incidence rates by activity patterns in person-years, taking into account the number of participants in the study and the length of time they were observed.
There were 0.86 dementia cases per 1,000 person-years among individuals who frequently performed domestic duties, but 1.02 instances per 1,000 person-years among those who did not.
There were 0.45 cases among regular exercisers, compared to 1.59 among infrequent exercisers.
And there were 0.62 dementia diagnoses among individuals who saw their family daily, compared to 0.80 among those who saw their family every few months.
The results took into account risk factors such as age, income, and smoking. Even individuals with a history of dementia in their families benefited from physical and mental activity.
However, the statistics were derived from self-reported physical and mental activities, thus they may contain mistakes.
Scientists believe that being physically active reduces the risk of acquiring dementia because it maintains blood flow to the brain and may promote the growth and survival of brain cells.
It also protects against cardiovascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, which are all risk factors for dementia.
