Can vigorous exercise help reduce the risk of cognitive impairment?

High blood pressure occurs when the force of blood pressing against blood vessel walls exceeds a certain range. This can damage blood vessels and increase the risk of heart problems and strokes.

A normal blood pressure the reading is below 120/80 millimeters of mercury (mmHg), and doctors can diagnose a person with high blood pressure when a systolic reading is 130 mmHg or higher or when a diastolic reading is 80 mmHg or higher .

Previous research also associated high blood pressure in midlife with a higher risk of cognitive impairment. The authors of the current study note that people with high blood pressure are at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and mild cognitive impairment.

José Morales, MD, a vascular neurologist and neurointerventional surgeon at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, California, who was not involved in the current research, told Medical news today that:

“Hypertension damages the small blood vessels in our brain and also causes them to malfunction. This leads to progressive damage to the brain, which in turn leads to cognitive impairment.

The researchers who conducted the current study wanted to assess whether vigorous exercise helped reduce the risk of mild cognitive impairment and probable dementia.

This study was a post hoc analysis using data from the SPRINT MIND STUDY, which was part of the SPRINT trial. This trial included more than 9,000 adults in the United States with high blood pressure.

At enrollment, participants were asked about the frequency of their participation in vigorous physical activity. Vigorous physical activity was defined as activities that induced sweating, increased heart rate, or increased respiration.

Participants could choose their level of vigorous physical activity from the following categories:

1. rarely or never
2. one to three sessions of vigorous activity per month
3. one session of vigorous activity per week
4. two to four sessions of vigorous activity per week
5. five or more sessions of vigorous activity per week.

In the analysis, the researchers divided the participants into a low-vigorous physical activity group and a high-vigorous physical activity group.

The low-vigorous physical activity group had less than one session of vigorous physical activity per week, and the high-vigorous physical activity group had one or more sessions of vigorous physical activity per week.

All participants also underwent cognitive assessment testing, and covariates included items such as age, education, smoking, antihypertensive medication use, body mass index (BMI), and consumption. of alcohol.

The researchers excluded participants with limited physical functions or missing cognitive assessments, allowing them to include 7,670 participants in their final analysis.

The average follow-up time for participants was 4.5 years, and during this period, cases of mild cognitive impairment and probable dementia were identified.

Overall, participants in the very vigorous physical activity group had a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment and probable dementia.

The association was stronger among participants younger than 75 years at baseline and among black participants. The association also seemed stronger among participants who had previous cardiovascular disease.

Study author Richard Kazibwe, MD, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, noted MNT that:

“Engaging in vigorous physical activity at least once a week may help slow cognitive decline in people with hypertension. This level of physical activity may offer protection against dementia and mild cognitive impairment. The study is unique because it focuses on people with high-risk hypertension, a population more likely to develop cognitive impairment. Previous studies have not specifically addressed this group.

According to Morales, “This is an interesting study that demonstrates what many people with uncontrolled hypertension find counterintuitive. »

“Exercise helps regulate our autonomic nervous system and reduces the impact of these vascular risk factors on our health,” he explains.

“People should be encouraged to see the impact that lifestyle changes can have on modifying the consequences of vascular risk factors such as hypertension, as well as preserving brain health and function” , added Morales.

Despite intriguing results, this study faces some specific limitations.

First, some data comes from participant self-reports, which means it may be inaccurate. Second, nearly 65% ​​of participants were white and approximately 35% were female, indicating the need for greater diversity in future research and limited ability to generalize results.

The results also cannot be generalized to groups suffering from certain pathologies not represented in the SPRINT study, such as people with diabetes. Exclusion criteria for the current analysis may also have impacted the results.

The authors further acknowledge that their study “likely lacked adequate statistical power to detect the benefit (of vigorous physical activity) on the risk of probable dementia.”

There is also a potential risk of confounding, and the researchers only looked at basic data related to vigorous physical activity. Changes in vigorous physical activity could impact cognitive outcomes.

Additionally, researchers did not examine the extent to which moderate physical activity or the potential negative effects of sedentary behavior might affect cognitive status. Finally, mild cognitive impairment “at the time of enrollment was not assessed,” which could have had an impact on the results.

Future research may allow for longer follow-up periods to confirm the results of this research. Kazibwe noted that future research could include “studies using device-assessed physical activity in large and diverse populations are needed to investigate the benefits of vigorous physical activity to protect against cognitive decline.” »