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Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

bbc.co.uk

41–50 of 251 posts

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#41
post #13
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well done you. 50 lbs is huge. Since you are up so early and only have 40mins from waking up to gym, mind sharing your diet too (what you eat when)?

Low carb. Protein, some veggies and lots of fat. Mostly good fat like olive oil. 1 tablespoon of MCT oil a day. Nuts. A little chocolate a couple times a week. Was pre-diabetic and no longer am. My blood chemistry has never been better. Total cholesterol is around 120 and triglycerides are around 70. I do take a statin. I have two doctors that support my diet. One a internist and one a cardiologist. I get up and sit…

statins cause coenzyme Q deficiency

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3096178/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4635278/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25977402

You probably should take ubiquinol every day while you're on those things

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#42
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the most common one line reply to any study, and it's a pet peeve of mine. If you actually read past the headline, you'd see this was not a population study, but a review of experimental ones, where your "confounding factor" is literally the fact that experimenters asked people to exercise. Please, be skeptical of studies, but don't be so arrogant to presume authors aren't capable of the most elementary scien…

That's not arrogance, only good science. You'd be surprised how many "obvious" things get through peer review.

If you read the study and point out a flaw, thank you for your contribution. If you make a zero effort "observation" which makes it clear you didn't even skim the abstract, you're adding nothing of value.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#43
post #17
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The real question: is there anyone out there that really debates that exercising constantly = better, longer life? The real question is: how much better, how much longer? A priori any real-valued metric has a 50% chance of being net positive, but that doesn't mean the effect will be large enough to matter.

Compound studies find that 1hr of sports = 7hrs of additional life (up to 7hrs a week).

1h sports per week for 30 years means 7h * 52 * 30 = 10920h additional life. Equals to 1.25 additional years. So for 30 years of exercise you get about 1 additionl year? I hoped for more :-P

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#44
post #31

On one side of my family retirement for my grandparents meant long days vegetating in front of the television with little dogs to pet. Church on Sundays were really their only time out. This brought dementia by age 80 and a host of other issues and they are on their way out. On the other side my grandfather plays basketball, golfs, runs, reads a book every few days, even drinks at a bar. No dementia. Sharp as a tack.…

Both my grandfathers where professors who kept working up until their irrespective colleges forced them retire due to their alzheimers. One ran marathons up until his 70s and the other one did moderate exercise. Both did everything you are supposed to do, both got alzheimers. 80 isn't going to be a party no matter how healthy you are, it's 80.

The guy who ran my white water raft guide course was 74.

He did a backflip out of the raft in a 3+ rapid, into a glacier melt river North of 60. He laughed when I was given control of the raft for the first time and I flipped it with him and five others in it within 30 seconds.

I'm willing to bet he will still be having a ball at age 80.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#45
post #38
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the most common one line reply to any study, and it's a pet peeve of mine. If you actually read past the headline, you'd see this was not a population study, but a review of experimental ones, where your "confounding factor" is literally the fact that experimenters asked people to exercise. Please, be skeptical of studies, but don't be so arrogant to presume authors aren't capable of the most elementary scien…

that experimenters asked people to exercise. Where are you reading this? The article is about the meta review here http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2017/03/30/bjsports-2016-0... Even if you're right, it still doesn't remove the confounding factors. Let's assume you're right and each study has a control group that doesn't exercise (for.... x years...? seems ridiculous) and an experimental group which exercises regula…

[deleted]

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#46
post #38
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the most common one line reply to any study, and it's a pet peeve of mine. If you actually read past the headline, you'd see this was not a population study, but a review of experimental ones, where your "confounding factor" is literally the fact that experimenters asked people to exercise. Please, be skeptical of studies, but don't be so arrogant to presume authors aren't capable of the most elementary scien…

that experimenters asked people to exercise. Where are you reading this? The article is about the meta review here http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2017/03/30/bjsports-2016-0... Even if you're right, it still doesn't remove the confounding factors. Let's assume you're right and each study has a control group that doesn't exercise (for.... x years...? seems ridiculous) and an experimental group which exercises regula…

I'm reading this in the same place you linked. It's a meta study of experimental studies, where experimenters ask otherwise sedentary people to be subject to "exercise interventions" (it's in the title...). Observations weren't for years AFAIK, studies over 4 weeks were eligible and an effect was observed.

Edit: as for your confounding effect, it doesn't strike at the heart of the study. The study finds that actually doing exercise improves your cognitive function. Not that there are "sharp" people and "active" people and these tend to go together. Whether or not you're sharp or healthy to begin with, doing "exercise intervention" will improve your cognition.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#47
post #16
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you but why so insanely early? 6:00am is early; at 4:30 you're waking up before the crack of dawn! Heck, I'm lucky if I can be asleep by 4:30am...

The gym I go to is open 24x7 and there are people leaving when we arrive and I thought we were early.

I remember going to gold's gym in austin (this would have been in the 90's, no idea if gold's is still there) at 5am, and some of the people there were already well into their workouts, if not also leaving for the day(!).

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#48
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not arrogance, only good science. You'd be surprised how many "obvious" things get through peer review.

If you read the study and point out a flaw, thank you for your contribution. If you make a zero effort "observation" which makes it clear you didn't even skim the abstract, you're adding nothing of value.

You're right. It's not arrogance though, just laziness?

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#49
post #43
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compound studies find that 1hr of sports = 7hrs of additional life (up to 7hrs a week).

1h sports per week for 30 years means 7h * 52 * 30 = 10920h additional life. Equals to 1.25 additional years. So for 30 years of exercise you get about 1 additionl year? I hoped for more :-P

I think it's not just the extra 1 year (assuming that much), but also the quality of life. I'd rather be a sprightly 80 yr old (sadly, I'm more than halfway there now), than chair/bed bound.

Re: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds

#50
post #35

Somewhat related, today I read "Researchers found that the foot's impact during walking sends pressure waves through the arteries that significantly modify and can increase the supply of blood to the brain." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170424141340.h...

What is the evolutionary explanation for this?

Does there have to be? Doesn't evolution produce a lot of things which are side-effects not goals?
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