The speed at which we walk while we are adults can be an indicator of the risk of suffering from dementia or cerebral infarction when reaching the third age, according to an investigation of the Boston Medical Center (USA) that is presented at the meeting of the American Academy of Neurology next April. In this way, neurologists and family doctors would have in their consultations "a comfortable and simple test to predict the risk of impaired cognitive function," the researchers say.
In studies of more than 2,400 men and women in their 60s, Erica C. Camargo and her colleagues measured their walking speed and grip strength, as well as cognitive function, also aided by brain scans. For the next 11 years they studied its evolution. And so they found that people who initially walked slower were 1.5 times more likely to develop dementia . In addition, they found that walking at a slow pace was associated with a lower brain volume, a weaker memory and less dexterity in the use of language and in decision-making.
The researchers intend to conduct more studies to understand why this occurs and whether there is a preclinical disease that could be causing slow walking or lower grip strength.
