Uh oh...Exercise found to make dementia worse

[KarlK]

So even if ecercise doesn’t help your memory once you have dementia, you have to ask yourself, “Would you rather be frail and demented or strong and demented?”

Oh well, I am already strong and demented. Ask one of my coaches, Karl Schudt. No hope for me!!

[Jonathon Sullivan]

Probably at least 3. (On a 70-point scale). I think this paper set 2.45 as their threshold for meaningful change, good or bad, which was not met. So the average of a 1 or 2-pt drop in the exercise group was not thought to be meaningful. It is disappointing that they didn’t see any degree of improvement, but there may be issues with the study design that could be addressed in future studies.

But by no stretch should anyone read this study and conclude that “exercise makes dementia worse.”

There is some indication of minor cognitive or affective improvement in the literature with strength training, and it's heartening...but I'm skeptical. I think no change over control is the most probable finding of a well-done study. I have had a couple of clients with dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. I'm always very careful to make then understand that after a period of training, they will still have dementia. It's just that they'll be stronger with dementia instead of weak with dementia.

[Keith Burnett]

There is some indication of minor cognitive or affective improvement in the literature with strength training, and it's heartening...but I'm skeptical. I think no change over control is the most probable finding of a well-done study. I have had a couple of clients with dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. I'm always very careful to make then understand that after a period of training, they will still have dementia. It's just that they'll be stronger with dementia instead of weak with dementia.

A reasonable conclusion not necessarily requiring the effort,expense, of scientific ratification in order to advise your clients. I would not want this result to impede study of a better hypothesis ( with exercise)....such as going on now in the EARLY study of the effect of drug interventions on onset ,severity of AD in subjects with positive markers and “normal” cognition ( ie PET scans etc).

We’ll never get satisfaction from exercise studies if we insist on purity with methods.

[Keith Burnett]

A reasonable conclusion not necessarily requiring the effort,expense, of scientific ratification in order to advise your clients. I would not want this result to impede study of a better hypothesis ( with exercise)....such as going on now in the EARLY study of the effect of drug interventions on onset ,severity of AD in subjects with positive markers and “normal” cognition ( ie PET scans etc).

We’ll never get satisfaction from exercise studies if we insist on purity with methods.

In a way the way study reported is fake news.
This too...will pass.

[PizzaDad]

" No change" isn't bad news. Strength training for older people usually involves some sore of social element. There is a mental challenge associated with training, which engages the mind and encourages the person to read and watch other things. It creates an interest. Compare that with the lethargy of doing nothing. The mental decay that comes with isolation and lack of interests. I will roll the dice with strength training.

[carson]

Rip has some comments that are germane. YouTube