Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

New research concludes staying active decreases the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The New York Times reporter Nicholas Bakalar reports:

Researchers studied a group of more than 2,200 people over 65 and without dementia from 1994 to 1996, then followed them through October 2003, examining their mental abilities with standard tests and their physical performance with strength and agility tasks.

During the follow-up, 319 people developed dementia. Of them, 221 had Alzheimer's. But the poorer their physical performance at the start of the study, even among people with no signs of dementia, the more likely they were to develop dementia.

The associations held even after adjusting for age, family history of dementia, heart disease and other factors.

The study appears in The Archives of Internal Medicine.

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Yesterday children from all fifty states exercised in unison for fifteen minutes. The program called All Children Exercise Simultaneously (ACES) hopes to encourage kids to incorporate regular exercise into their lives and adopt healthy diets. Matthew Verrinder of the Associated Press reports:

Len Saunders, a grinning New Jersey elementary school gym teacher started Project ACES in 1989. Students in all 50 states and at least 50 other countries were urged to exercise en masse for 15 minutes Wednesday, all to curb alarming rates of childhood obesity. ACES stands for All Children Exercise Simultaneously.

"Now we just have to get them to do it every day, and we'll be fine," said Saunders, 45, who teaches at Valley View Elementary School, about 25 miles west of Manhattan. "The obesity epidemic is crazy in our country right now. This is not going to change their lives for the 15 minutes today, but it may motivate them to exercise in the future."

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