By Mary Kekatos Health Reporter For Dailymail.com
Published: 21:03 GMT, 16 January 2019 | Updated: 21:40 GMT, 16 January 2019
View
comments
Keeping active in old age may protect against Alzheimer's disease, a new study finds.
Researchers say that senior citizens who moved more than average - be it from exercise or housework - had better memory and thinking skills than those who weren't as active.
This was the case even if an elderly person was beginning to show early signs of dementia.
The team, from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, says the findings shed light on the age-related brain disease and could offer hope of treatments that slow down the progression of symptoms without the need for drugs.
A new study has found that senior citizens who moved more than average had better memory and thinking skills than those who weren't as active (file image)
For the study, published in the journal Neurology, the team looked at more than 450 adults. Nearly 200 had been diagnosed with dementia while the rest had not.
The researchers had the participants undergo a physical exam, cognitive tests and memory tests once year over the course of 20 years.
About two years before the average age of death - around 91 years old - each adult was given an accelerometer.
The watch-like device monitors all types of
