Walking reduces dementia risk

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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Walking decreases the risk of dementia. The minimal step dose was 3,826 steps per day which reduced the risk of dementia by 25%. About 10,000 steps per day reduced the risk of dementia by 50%. Fast stepping – a ‘mere’ 112 steps/min in a 30-minute epoch – had the greatest impact on reducing dementia incidence in this cohort (62% vs 50% risk reduction for 9,800 daily steps).

Although this was a study of walking, I’m sure that Zumba, which has fast stepping to music, would reduce dementia risk at least as much, especially since Zumba also has fast arm movements that stimulate heart rate even more.

The study assessed daily step count from wrist-worn accelerometers for 78,430 people 40 to 79 years old in the U.K. Biobank cohort from February 2013 to December 2015. Because the study was very large, the results are very reliable.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/dementia/100547?xid=n…

Because of the high cost of dementia care, a reduction of 50% would have signficant Macroeconomic impact.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3959992/

**The estimated prevalence of dementia among persons older than 70 years of age in the United States in 2010 was 14.7%. The yearly monetary cost per person that was attributable to dementia was either $56,290 (95% confidence interval [CI], $42,746 to $69,834) or $41,689 (95% CI, $31,017 to $52,362), depending on the method used to value informal care. These individual costs suggest that the total monetary cost of dementia in 2010 was between $157 billion and $215 billion. Medicare paid approximately $11 billion of this cost.**

Medicare doesn’t pay for long-term care. Dementia care is paid for by families until the assets are spent down. Then the patient is paid for by Medicaid.

Anyone who can walk can benefit by simply walking. It’s free and easy.

Wendy

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Walking decreases the risk of dementia

Yes it can. However, a meaningful impact depends on dose. Seems obvious and it reads as if it does…3,826 steps a day reducing the risk by 25%… but that relative risk reduction is presumably in comparison to not doing much by way of volition exercise at all. The consequences of doing nothing are demonstrably so bad that even 25% better than nothing still isn’t very much…and may not be enough to make the sort of difference that one might hope for.

10,000 is better (no surprise there) but I suspect that even the “best” that was achieved in this study was a long way off from that “reverse J curve” level of exercise whereby the morbidity and mortality drop (including…but not limited to…dementia)…whereby you reach the point of diminishing returns or even an increase.

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…and just as I posted that reply, this came up on TMF’s advertising banner

https://fourthfrontier.com/products/frontier-x?utm_source=Go…

Now that’s a useful ad to me so a very useful thread start, Wendy. Have a rec!!!

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I use a pulse oximeter which shows blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate. It’s not continuous – I have to stop and put my finger into it for 15 seconds. I got it to monitor my oxygen level in case of catching Covid, but I use it when I exercise.

After a fast Zumba dance my pulse rate goes over 120 beats per minute, sometimes up to 140 bpm. Not bad for age 68.

Wendy

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Well, my aim is for such a high aerobic capacity (as measured by VO2MAX…estimated via my Garmin) that I can have the run speed that right now elicits a heart rate of >140 bpm after about a minute or so (round about 5.5 mph belt speed and4% incline) be so “easy” that I’m struggling to raise my heart rate above 120 bpm at a treadmill speed I’m not too scared to run at.

At 70…and a second lapiplasty on the docket for sometime in the future…I might have to refocus my lenses a bit.

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Walking decreases the risk of dementia. The minimal step dose was 3,826 steps per day which reduced the risk of dementia by 25%. About 10,000 steps per day reduced the risk of dementia by 50%. Fast stepping – a ‘mere’ 112 steps/min in a 30-minute epoch – had the greatest impact on reducing dementia incidence in this cohort (62% vs 50% risk reduction for 9,800 daily steps).

Ms. Wolf and I walk daily at a speed of 3.6 mph.

How did I calculate that? We walk a distance of 3.6 miles in 60 minutes. So, if I haven’t made any errors (please check my math), 60 minutes equals 3,600 seconds divided by the coefficient of pi times our average stride minus the headwind speed divided by the golden constant times Euler’s Number minus Planck’s Constant plus 42.

Yep, that comes out to 3.6 mph.

Then I found this on the internet:

If you’re walking for your health, a pace of about 3 miles per hour (or about 120 steps per minute) is about right. That’s a 20-minute mile.

One thing I absolutely love about the internet; If you don’t find the answer you want on the internet, keep looking until you find it.

I call that the AlphaWolf Golden Rule Constant or AGRC. I’d like to add AGRC as one of the abbreviations we use on METAR, like JC.

Wendy, I think I’m in the 38%.

I’m sorry, what was the question?

AW

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Have any of you read the okeefe lavie study?

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Have any of you read the okeefe lavie study

Yes…and listened to him on a podcast :wink:

https://peterattiamd.com/jamesokeefe

Hence my frequent use of the reverse J curve concept. Thing is, the point of diminishing returns…or even the “sweet spot” for optimal exercise…is so far above the lower limits mentioned in the OP study that it’s almost a moot point.

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I asked because if you read the full study you find the sweet spot for runners was not found for walkers. Walkers showed continued improvement up to the two hour mark and not enough evidence to determine the sweet spot for those who walk more than two hours per day.

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It’s a worthwhile read,

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I asked because if you read the full study you find the sweet spot for runners was not found for walkers

Well, there’s a reason for that. Running imposes a greater workload on the body than walking (even at the same speed) so theoretically you could find your way into the bottom of the reverse J curve…and the point of diminishing returns…in less time if you’re running than walking. Even at the same speed.

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Many people who can walk simply can’t do high-impact activities like running. Studies on older people doing low-impact exercise are pretty darn important since most of the people who CAN do high-impact exercise are too young to be in danger of dementia within the time scope of a reasonable study.

As it is, fewer than 5% of people over age 60 get the equivalent of 20 minutes of any kind of exercise each day.

Wendy

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Walking decreases the risk of dementia.

Today I walked myself into sanity but I got tired as hell.

Portuguese public transport is like the movie Never on Sunday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIP2FRS2pD8

Back then the knew how to make movies.

The Captain

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Today I walked myself into sanity…

That’s a huge benefit of walking

…but I got tired as hell

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, either…depending upon how many steps caused that fatigue.

Looking at the lowest and so called “optimal” number you can see a problem in taking the banner headlines on the articles on this study at face value.

If, in fact, you’d done a brisk 5 mile hike (give or take) in hilly terrain, I could see being so spanked for the rest of the day, needing to rest up and not accruing any more than, say, 10,000k steps in the 24hr period.

Conversely, a barely 2 mile walk that precipitates the same fatigue and resulting compensatory sitting for the rest of the day would be a huge diagnostic that a person was pretty vulnerable to being unable to maintain independent living…even if dementia wasn’t an issue.

I’ve read this study through a few times (the primary document, that is…not the gussied up press release) I can’t find anything that validates that upper figure of just under a daily step count of 10,000k steps as being optimal. That’d mean more than 10,000k leads to a reduction in benefit…which, if true, is a sorry lookout for me at 70 as I’m pretty close to that already at 8.30 and my “short” Z2 training session behind me and the rest of the day before me (it’s a lifting day today)

Still future proofing my body, me.

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