Daily HealthBeat Tip

Thinking young.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I�m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A new study highlights the idea that keeping your body active can help to keep your mind sharp as you grow older. The eight-year study looked at close to 3,400 people over age 65. It found that the people with the widest variety of activities were the least likely to develop dementia, the mind-robbing mental conditions that include Alzheimer�s disease.

Professor Constantine Lyketsos (lee-KET�-sohs) of The Johns Hopkins University says how hard people worked at an activity wasn�t nearly as important as the number of things they did:

"It�s whether you do it in a limited number of activities � say you�re just a jogger or just a swimmer -- or whether you do something broader, like you jog, you swim, you garden, you do heavy housework and things of that kind." (11 seconds)

Lyketsos suspects that doing many activities keeps the brain more active.

The study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I�m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: July 14, 2005

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