Archives of Internal Medicine

A recent article says older women should be excercising to stave off Alzheimers. Here are excerpts.


Brains and Aging
Comment on "Physical Activity and Cognition in Women With Vascular Conditions" and "Activity Energy Expenditure and Incident Cognitive Impairment in Older Adults"
Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH

Arch Intern Med. Published online July 19, 2011. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.273

The study found that persons in the highest tertile of average energy expenditure(AEE) had significantly lower odds of cognitive impairment compared with persons in the lowest tertile. The fact that the study used a validated measurement of energy expenditure, not just self-report, makes the results of further importance.
Most notably, vascular degenerative processes clearly play an important role in late-life dementias. In addition, vascular risk factors, such as limited physical activity, midlife hypertension, and smoking, are associated with late-life dementias. In practice, distinguishing vascular dementia from Alzheimer disease is difficult, especially in very old patients in whom dementia is most common. Importantly, limited physical activity and other vascular risk factors are modifiable, suggesting potential for reducing the growing burden of late-life cognitive impairment.
Among the growing evidence base for the benefit of even moderate exercise, an earlier randomized controlled trial showed that, even after onset of dementia, a regular walking program reduced decline and was associated with decreased admission to nursing homes for behavioral problems.

Tai chi and fibromyalgia

There's a link here for an editorial piece from the New England Journal of Medicine that only shows the first 100 words but when I read the whole if it, provided by Dr. Rowe, they think tai chi helps. NEJM has published two articles on tai chi as a therapy, as well.
   While at this link, take a look at the other two articles and comments you find in a search under tai chi on the NEJM site. I think you'll find them interesting.
editorial   http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1006315
other articles  http://www.nejm.org/search?q=tai+chi+fibromyalgia&asug=tai