Exercise may improve function in dementia patients

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Organized exercise designed to increase strength, flexibility, mobility and coordination may improve overall physical function among nursing home patients with Alzheimer’s disease, researchers report.

Alzheimer’s disease patients who have physically deteriorated are less able to perform activities of daily life, which, in turn, affects their quality of life. Despite the well-known physical benefits obtained from exercise, Professor Alejandro Lucia and colleagues in Spain found comparatively little research has focused on exercise training among patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

To address this, Lucia, of the Universidad Europea De Madrid, and collaborators compared the outcomes of 16 Alzheimer’s disease patients who were randomly assigned to receive normal care involving no programed exercise or to a12-week exercise program as part of their nursing home care.

Each group consisted of five women and three men of similar functional capacity at the start of the study. Participants’ average age was 73 years in the normal care group and 76 years in the exercise group, the investigators report in the International Journal of Sports Medicine.

Exercise sessions, held 3 days each week, included 75 minutes of warm-up and cool-down stretching, inside walking, joint mobility activities, elastic exercise-band resistance training, and coordination exercises using foam balls.

Lucia’s team reports the exercise group had significant improvements in measures of upper and lower body strength and flexibility; agility and balance; walking abilities; and endurance. Exercise participants also showed greater ability to independently perform activities of daily living such as rising from a chair, transferring from bed to chair, bathing, or dressing.

By contrast, the normal care group showed no changes over the 12-week period.

These findings show that shorter duration exercise programs “are sufficient to induce significant improvements in patients’ functional performance and independence,” the investigators state. Adherence to the training program was nearly 100 percent, they add.

While more evidence of efficacy is needed from larger study populations, Lucia and colleagues suggest similar programs could be included in the overall nursing home care of Alzheimer’s disease patients.

SOURCE: International Journal of Sports Medicine, October 2008.

Source

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Posts:


By Joene Hendry NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Combined findings from multiple studies indicate that exercise programs, especially those that include balance training, do reduce falls among elderly people. Examples of successful falls prevention programs include “Tai Chi and home-based or group-based exercise prescribed by a health professional,” Dr. Catherine Sherrington told Reuters Health. On the other hand,

Full Post: Balance exercises reduce seniors’ risk of falling
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Megan Rauscher NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older adults who regularly take part in top-rated, low-cost physical activity programs offered by their local senior center or YMCA can see noticeable improvement in physical functioning and lower their risk of becoming disabled, research shows. “Older adults can benefit greatly from these programs,” Susan L. Hughes told Reuters

Full Post: The best exercise programs benefit the elderly
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among nursing home residents, having a nursing aide help them maintain good oral hygiene lowers the odds of them dying from pneumonia, a study suggests. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in elderly nursing home residents, Dr. Carol W. Bassim and colleagues point out in the Journal of the American

Full Post: Oral hygiene curbs pneumonia risk in elderly
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Megan Rauscher NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A home-based diet and exercise program may improve physical functioning in elderly, long-term cancer survivors, results of a controlled study indicate. “Today, two thirds of individuals diagnosed with cancer survive their cancer,” Dr. Wendy Demark-Wahnefried noted a conference sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research. “That’s good news. However,

Full Post: Home interventions benefit older cancer survivors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Exercise may improve sleep patterns in people with insomnia or sleep disruptions related to periodic leg movements, according to study findings reported by Brazilian researchers. Dr. Marco Tulio de Mello and colleagues at Federal University of Sao Paulo-UNIFESP assessed the effects of acute intensive exercise on sleep patterns in 22 volunteers

Full Post: Physical exercise may ease nocturnal leg movement

Site Navigation

Most Read

Search

Contact

  • kinwrite.com@gmail.com