To reduce the risk of dementia, exercising only on weekends is enough, study finds

Published: November 3, 2024 at 8:30 a.m.

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FExercising only on weekends could be just as beneficial for slowing mental decline as working out throughout the week, according to researchers who published their findings in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The researchers found that the risk of mild dementia was reduced by 15% on average among “weekend warriors” – nicknamed by the study, these are those who exercise once or twice a week – and by 10% among “regular active people” who exercised more often. Translation: The benefits of exercising once or twice a week are much the same as those of exercising more frequently.

Indeed, after taking into account factors likely to influence the results, such as age, smoking, sleep duration, diet and alcohol consumption, the researchers suggested that both types of exercise had similar effects.

« We found that around 10% of cases [de démence légère] would be eliminated if all middle-aged adults played sports or exercise once or twice a week or more often “, they indicated.

Other studies have already shown that physical activity would already be beneficial more than twenty years before a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, for example. The researchers observed that the more physical activity the study participants had, the less risk they had of developing Parkinson’s disease, even when physical activity was assessed more than 20 years before diagnosis. The most active women thus had a reduced risk of around 25% of developing the disease compared to the least active.

Concretely, it is not the time when you exercise that counts, but the fact of doing it, which improves your health. And it’s a more convenient option for those who are too busy during the week to fit in a workout.

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