- Walking progressively slower can be a sign that the hippocampus is shrinking.
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| Increasingly slow walking, when accompanied by symptoms of cognitive decline, maybe an early sign of dementia. / Pixabay |
In older people, walking more and more slowly as the years go by has usually been seen as a symptom of weakness and the inevitable physical decline of age. However, it seems that this progressive change could hide something else.
Cognitive decline, the hippocampus, and dementia
For example, a study carried out by American scientists and published in the specialized media Neurology found that people who show this sign have a higher risk of suffering a certain degree of cognitive impairment, which can also be considered symptomatic of this phenomenon. It appears to be related to a decrease in the size of an area of the brain called the hippocampus, which is associated with memory processing.
Now, a large study of 17,000 adults over the age of 65 has found that people who walk 5% slower each year and also show other signs of cognitive decline are at especially high risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimer's. The results of this work have been published in the scientific medium JAMA Network Open.
Dual decline
Specifically, the authors carried out a seven-year follow-up of these patients, who underwent tests annually to measure their cognitive deterioration, their memory, their processing speed, and their verbal fluency.
Likewise, twice each year, the speed at which they walked three meters was measured, in order to find the average speed with which they usually walk.
Crossing the values obtained, they concluded that the people with the highest risk of suffering from dementia were those who presented a 'dual deterioration'; that is, they showed signs of cognitive impairment and also experienced a decrease in the average speed at which they typically walk.
However, the researchers do point out that, despite these results, the decline in the speed at which a patient walks has not been considered an early sign in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Walking faster to prevent dementia
In addition to the implications that the finding could have for the early diagnosis of dementia and for early clinical intervention in those who suffer from it, the phenomenon could in fact also work in reverse: that is, walking faster could reduce the risk of developing the disease.
And it is known that aerobic exercise (such as walking at a good pace) is capable of increasing the size of the hippocampus, which seems to reduce or at least delay the symptoms of dementia.