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> High fitness in middle age reduces the chance of dementia by ninety percent Not to be a sourpuss but I believe that a reasonable theory on this is that physi
by throwawaymaths 4y ago
> High fitness in middle age reduces the chance of dementia by ninety percent
Not to be a sourpuss but I believe that a reasonable theory on this is that physical activity, especially activity that uses brain power, causes neuronal development which reroutes function around damage, without necessarily preventing or mitigating damage itself.
- SamBam 4y agoRerouting is mitigating. If the end result is lack of dementia, that's what's important. The fact that some percentage of the neurons are damaged is not a problem. The elasticity of the brain is an evolved trait, rerouting is what the brain does to keep working.
- throwawaymaths 4y agoWell no. Is it not obvious that if you could prevent the damage that would be better than patching it over?
- kupopuffs 4y agoDepends on what negative effects actually manifest
- _a_a_a_ 4y agoPhysical surely helps but the theory of cognitive reserve suggests heavy brain use may build up a reserve of extra connections which insulate one somewhat from brain loss. I can't quote selectively as it's a big chunk of text, but here <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_reserve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_reserve>