Slow walking may be a warning sign of dementia

Experts believe that slow walking associated with aging has long been seen as a harbinger of increasing weakness in the body that may cause falls and other disabilities.

Emerging research involving small groups of older adults has also revealed that slower walking, year after year, may be an early indicator of cognitive decline.

Studies suggest that this may be due to a contraction of the right hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with memory.

But not all signs of cognitive decline suggest dementia later on. Only 10-20% of people 65 and older with mild cognitive impairment or mild cognitive impairment develop dementia the following year, according to the National Institute on Aging.

The institute stated that "in many cases, symptoms of moderate cognitive impairment may remain unchanged or even improve," according to what was published on the "CNN Arabia" website.

Now, a new, large-scale study of nearly 17,000 adults over the age of 65 finds that people who walk 5% or more slowly per year, along with signs of slow mental processing, are more likely to develop dementia.

This study was published in the journal "JAMA Network Open", last Tuesday.

"These findings highlight the importance of walking for assessing dementia risk," wrote correspondent author Taya Collier, a research fellow at the Peninsula Clinical School at Monash University in the Australian state of Victoria.

Dr. Joe Verghese, a professor of geriatrics and neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, who was not involved in the study, said that the study researchers concluded that the highest risk of dementia was recorded in "people with double deterioration," or people with dementia. Those who walked more slowly also showed some signs of cognitive decline.

"In addition, people with a double dipstick were more likely to develop dementia than those with cognitive decline or slow walking alone," Verghese wrote in an editorial accompanying the study published in the journal "JAMA" last Tuesday.

And a meta-analysis study published in 2020, including about 9 thousand American adults, revealed that the double association between walking speed and memory decline indicates dementia at a later time.

But despite these findings, Verges writes, "walking impairment has not been seen as an early clinical feature in Alzheimer's patients."

And there are things we can do as we age to reverse the brain shrinkage that accompanies typical aging.

Studies have found that aerobic exercise increases the size of the hippocampus, which enhances some aspects of memory.

The hippocampus, located deep in the brain's temporal lobe, is an oddly shaped organ responsible for learning, the consolidation of memories, and spatial navigation, such as the ability to remember paths, locations and directions.

Aerobic exercises increased the volume of the right anterior hippocampus by 2%, and thus contributed to reversing the decline in this organ associated with age for a period of one or two years, during a randomized clinical trial, developed in 2011.

In contrast, people who practiced stretching exercises only recorded A decline of about 1.43% in the same time period.

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