Exercise Helps Out Older People

[Guest guest]

Study:

Exercise Helps Out Older People

April 23, 2004

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Older people who

exercise regularly are more likely to maintain brain function used for

everyday tasks like following a recipe and keeping the pills they take

straight, Ohio State University researchers say.

A study that examined the exercise habits of

28 people with chronic lung problems for more than a year found that routine

workouts helped stave off not only the physical effects of aging, but also

the cognitive decline.

Participants who exercised for a period then stopped lost the

benefits they gained, said the study that Ohio State announced last week.

Health care experts said the findings

bolster the need to encourage the elderly to follow exercise routines and to

create more rehabilitation programs for people recovering from illness or

injury.

" It's one of the conundrums, puzzles

and challenges, " said Terrie Wetle, president

of the Gerontological Society of America and associate

dean of medicine for public health at Brown University. " We can get older people to participate in an

exercise program. The biggest challenge is to get them to maintain those

behaviors over time. "

The effects of aging were more pronounced in

the test subjects, whose average age was 65, because they suffered from

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a blanket term including emphysema or

bronchitis. Lead author Emery, an Ohio State psychology professor, said similar results from

exercise could be expected in healthier older adults.

" The kinds of changes we see in people

with chronic lung disease are really an exacerbation of changes that occur

normally with age, " he said. " Similarly, the kinds of cognitive

changes that occur normally with age are exaggerated. "

For 10 weeks, participants gathered at a

wellness center at Duke University in Durham, N.C., for an aerobic routine

lasting about an hour that included walking, stationary bike riding, pool

aerobics and weight-training. For the first five weeks, they exercised daily

then cut back to three times a week.

At the beginning and the end of the 10-week

period, researchers put the subjects through a battery of emotional, physical

and cognitive tests. Some of the tests measured lung function, asked people

about their moods, required them to match numbers with symbols and checked

their ability to follow directions.

As researchers predicted, the scores

improved after the exercise.

But it was follow-up tests a year later that

surprised them.

Researchers gave participants instructions

on how to maintain their routines at home. A year later, the same battery of

tests was administered.

Researchers had expected the people who kept

exercising to show continued improvement in the tests. Instead, testing indicated

exercise was needed just to maintain the same levels of performance.

" We found that the people who continued

to exercise remained stable, and it was the people who stopped exercising or

exercised irregularly showed a decline, " Emery said.

Emery concluded that exercising can help

older people -- both sick and healthy -- maintain the mental functioning

ability needed to interpret information without being distracted. This type

of thought is involved in complicated tasks, such as following directions to

a house that a person has never visited.

" It could be steps that you have to go

through, and you don't want to mess them up or you're going to have

problems, " he said.

Health care experts said the study's results

were consistent with previous studies linking cognitive performance with

exercise programs.

But such studies are important to make sure

older people and their doctors get the message that exercise is necessary,

said Kerry , director of clinical exercise physiology at

s' Hopkins School of Medicine.

" One of the biggest problems is

physicians need to be made aware that these (rehabilitation) programs are

available, " he said.

Hugs,

Deanna