It’s official! Exercise does reduce risk of dementia

A new study has found that the five measures to stave off dementia are taking regular exercise, not smoking, keeping low body weight, eating healthy and having a low alcohol intake. People who consistently followed four or five of these behaviours experienced a 60% decline in dementia and cognitive decline — with exercise being the strongest mitigating factor — as well as 70% fewer instances of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, compared with people who followed none.      "What the research shows is that following a healthy lifestyle confers surprisingly large benefits to health — healthy behaviours have a far more beneficial effect than any medical treatment or preventative procedure," said researcher Peter Elwood.      "Taking up and following a healthy lifestyle is, however, the responsibility of the individual. Sadly, the evidence from this study shows that very few people follow a fully healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, our findings reveal that while the number of people who smoke has gone down since the study started, the number of people leading a fully healthy lifestyle has not changed," he added. ANI