Weight training staves off dementia in older women

Seniors who lifted weights or did other forms of resistance training slowed their decline to full-blown dementia, a study includingB.C. researchers has found.

A six-month strength training program that targeted women withmild cognitive impairmentandcomplained ofmemory problemshelped improve their attention, problem-solving and decision-making brain functions all needed to live independently.

In the study, 86 women 70 to 80 years old were randomly assigned to three groups:

• 26 participants didresistance training, such as lifting weights, to build muscle strength.
• 24 walkedoutdoors in an aerobics program.
• 27 tookbasic balance and toning classes as a control.

The exercise classes were held twice weekly.

"What our results show is that resistance training can indeed improve both your cognitive performance and your brain function," saidProf. Teresa Liu-Ambrose, who led the study at the University of British Columbia.

"What is key is that it will improve two processes that are highly sensitive to the effects of aging and neurodegeneration: executive function and associative memoryoften impaired in early stages of Alzheimer's disease."

Brain, body strengthened

Resistance training to work specific muscle groups is an important aspect of fitness, helping increase muscle mass and slow down or halt muscle loss, slow bone loss, and maintain or increase joint flexibility.

In the case of the B.C. research, the resistance training program improved associative memory, which refers to the ability of one thought or memory to trigger another, like "green means go," as well as conflict resolution.

Almost one-third hadfunctional MRIs at the start and end of the study to look for brain activity changes.

Aftersix months, compared to those in the balance and tone classes, the strength-training group showed"significant" cognitive improvement, the researchers said in this week's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Those in the strength-training group also showed changes inactivity inspecific parts of the brain's cortex that are associated with cognitive behaviour.

The investigators prepared aYouTube videoto guide seniors and fitness instructors working with older people on how to start doing simple exercises at home or at the gym.

Theseexercises include squatsa lower-body exercise that involves standing withfeet about shoulder-width apart, lowering the body into a squat position and moving back up to standing position, then repeating the up-and-down movement.

Use it or lose it

The researchersadvised seniorsnew to exercisingto use a trainer to ensure they're doing the exercises with proper form and to build up from there.

The study included a small number of subjects, and needs to be repeated in a larger group to confirm the value of resistance training in seniors and test forlonger-term benefits.

As for why those in the aerobic training group didn't show the same improvements, Liu-Ambrose speculated that the mental power needed to learn the resistance routines could be playing a role, compared with walking, which tends to come more naturally.

"Strength training itself is a type of exercise that requires a lot of attention," she said in an interview.

"So when you are performing strength-training exercises such as lifting weights, you're constantly monitoring what you're doing, you're monitoring your breathing, you're trying to monitor the number of sets, the repetitions you're doing as well as maintaining good form."

Two participants had short-term shortness of breath and four fell without injuring themselves.

Earlier studies in healthy older adults without mild cognitive impairment suggested thataerobic traininghelps cognition and brain plasticity.

The study also included investigators from the psychology department and division ofgeriatric medicine at UBC, and the psychology department at theUniversity of Iowa.

The studies were funded by Pacific Alzheimer's Research Foundation and infrastructure support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.