How important is cardiovascular fitness for the brain?

An interesting study suggests that maintaining high cardiovascular fitness in midlife could help decrease the risk of dementia in women. Researchers followed a population-based sample of 1,462 women between the ages of 38 and 60 for 44 years. Women with high fitness levels had a lower risk of developing all-cause dementia compared to those with medium or low fitness levels.

High fitness also delayed the onset of dementia by 9.5 years and time to onset by 5 years compared to medium fitness. The findings suggest that promoting high cardiovascular fitness may help prevent or mitigate dementia.

Reference

Helena Hörder, Lena Johansson, XinXin Guo, Gunnar Grimby, Silke Kern 2, Svante Östling, Ingmar Skoog. Midlife cardiovascular fitness and dementia: A 44-year longitudinal population study in women. Neurology. 2018 Apr 10;90(15):e1298-e1305.