I’ve been reading a lot of articles in the past couple of years supporting mental exercises to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s. However, today I came across a study which states that physical exercise is also beneficial to delay onset of dementia, which is a main component of the Alzheimer’s disease.
In this study, which examined mice with early-stage Huntington’s disease, researchers attempted to delay the progression of dementia through providing more mentally and physically stimulating environments. According to the study, the mice with these enhanced environments performed better on memory tests then than those mice that were provided less stimulating environments.
While this study was conducted with mice as opposed to human subjects, these results support the fact that further research in this area is crucial toward delaying dementia in humans. This study is especially important since a lot of nursing homes and assisted living facilities that house Alzheimer’s patients still do not have a dynamic physically and mentally stimulating environment.
Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 24 Feb 2008
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Bechdel, J. (2008). Mentally and Physically stimulating environments delay dementia. Psych Central. Retrieved on May 21, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/02/24/mentally-and-physically-stimulating-environments-delay-dementia/
