Couch potatoes face same chance of dementia as those with genetic risk factors: Research
The findings, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease , shed new light on the relationship between genes, lifestyle risk factors and dementia. Researchers, who tracked participants in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, found that while carriers of a variant of the 'apolipoprotein E' genotype are more likely to develop dementia, inactivity dramatically increases the risk for non-carriers. "The important message here is that being inactive may completely negate the protective effects of a healthy set of genes," says Jennifer Heisz, an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University and co-author of the study. "Given that most individuals are not at genetic risk, physical exercise may be an effective prevention strategy, " she says. Approximately 47.5-million people worldwide are living with dementia . That number is expected to surge to 115.4 million by the year 2050. With no known cure, there is an ur...