Exercise may help protect brains from dementia symptoms

Daily physical activity may help alter a person's brain chemistry to enhance cognitive function and help protect against dementia related symptoms, new research has found.

The post-mortem study, published in Alzheimer's and Dementia: the Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, analysed the protein levels of over 400 brain tissue samples donated by people aged between 70 and 80.

Researchers also tracked the physical activity of the research participants prior to their death.

The findings showed people who moved more had increased protective proteins inside of their brains, including those who had shown signs of Alzheimer's.

Previous studies indicate that regular exercise can reduce a person's likelihood of developing dementia by up to 30 per cent, but prior to now, this had not been analysed using human data.

These findings come as new estimates forecast the number of adults living with dementia worldwide to triple to 153 million by 2050.

There are currently more than 55 million people living with dementia worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, with one person developing the disease every three seconds.

In Australia, dementia is the second leading cause of death in women and is expected to affect up to one million people by 2058.

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