PHILIPPINES: Physical Activity Key to Mental Alertness in Old Age

CEBU (Sun Star), January 11, 2006: Old age and retirement mean time to relax and enjoy the rest of life. But to think of relaxation as inactivity is to think of the joys in life as determined by how much you don’t do. In fact, other than happiness, physical activity in old age ensures that your mind works well enough so you can still appreciate what happiness is. A recent study, led by B. M. van Gelder, shows that decreasing physical activity in old age reduces mental alertness. Van Gelder is researcher at National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (Bilthoven, the Netherlands). The results were reported in the journal Neurology. In the study, the researchers collected data of 295 healthy elderly (born between 1900 and 1920) who were involved in the Finland, Italy, the Netherlands Elderly (Fine) study. From 1990 onward, the data measured the duration and intensity of physical activities, such as walking, bicycling, farming, sports, odd jobs, and hobbies. Their mental abilities were assessed through skills, such as attention, calculation, recall, language, and orientation to time and place. Results show that participants involved in activities with lowest intensities, such as walking at a slow pace, had the strongest decline in mental skills. They had up to a 3.5 times greater decline than those who participated in high-intensity activities, like swimming. Those who decreased their intensity of physical activity experienced a decline 3.6 times greater than the decline in the men who maintained their intensity of physical activity. There was no decline in mental skills among men who increased the duration or intensity of their physical activity. In addition, participants who decreased the duration of physical activity by more than 60 minutes a day experienced a decline 2.6 times greater than the decline in those who maintained their duration of physical activity. “Even in old age,” says van Gelder, “participation in activities with at least a medium-to-low intensity may postpone cognitive decline. Moreover, a decrease in duration or intensity of physical activity results in a stronger cognitive decline than maintaining duration or intensity.” Henry David Thoreau, famous author of Walden (1854), put the results in a nutshell: “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” The key is enthusiasm for life itself; to enjoy life even when your sinews are asking for a break. Sinews will weaken eventually, but for the moment, move them as if they never had been moved before. By Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T.