According to the National Institute of Health, more than 850,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia. Research has shown that one in 14 people over the age of 65 has dementia, and this condition affects one in six people over the age of 80.
Physical fitness and a healthy diet help reduce many diseases associated with aging. But do you know that what you do in your spare time is also very important. But what you do in your spare time is also very important. How you spend your time sitting can also increase or decrease your risk of dementia, new research has found. Research has shown that people over the age of 60 who are inactive and sit for long periods of time may have an increased risk of developing brain disorders.
A previous review involving two million people reported that even some leisure activities have the power to reduce a person’s chance of cognitive decline by 23%. A new study has shown that sitting has a big impact on dementia.
Learn more about this new study
Given our busy and stressful lives, it is necessary for everyone to sit down and relax. But a study by USC and the University of Arizona, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that what we do while sitting can have a big impact on dementia risk.
A dataset from the UK Biobank was used for this research. which contained data from over 500,000 participants across the UK. Participants used a touchscreen questionnaire to report information about their level of sedentary behavior.
TV and dementia are linked
The results found that among physically active people, time spent watching TV was associated with an increased risk of dementia. On the other hand, spending more free time using a computer has been shown to reduce the risk of developing dementia.
Study author David Raichlen, professor of biological sciences and anthropology in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, said, “It’s not the amount of time spent sitting, but the type of leisure activity that affects the risk of dementia.”
He added: “From previous studies, we have found that watching television is associated with lower levels of muscle activity and energy expenditure than computer or reading. Other research has shown that because long periods of continuous sitting reduce blood flow to the brain, the greater intellectual stimulation that occurs during computer use can counteract the negative effects of sitting.”
Know how to reduce your risk of dementia
Activities associated with a lower risk of dementia while sitting include:
puzzle
Reading
learning a new language
craft making
To write
playing games
chat with others.
