Agitation and functioning improved in a group of elderly nursing home residents suffering from severe dementia when they engaged in just 30 minutes of supervised exercise three times a week ... "exercise benefits all; even those with severe dementia can reap the benefits of exercise if people are patient enough."
By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room
December, 2009
Redux
I often write about how I believe one of the most important things to do with/for a person suffering from Alzheimer's disease is to exercise.
I write repeatedly about how exercise transforms my mother from a zombie to a person with a smile on her face. The transformation continues to amaze me even after 6, strike that 8 years.
In part, exercise explains how I was able to transform my mother from being very mean and angry into a person more like her former self -- before Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's caregivers tell me their loved one can't exercise. The article below seems to refute this claim. Although, I have no real way of knowing in any given situation whether the person is or isn't capable of exercise. I fully understand there are many stages of dementia.
I can tell you this. My mother walks at the pace of a snail, strike that, she now has difficulty walking. You actually have to learn how to walk with her. It is very difficult to walk that slow. Usually when I tell someone this they laugh -- they don't laugh after they try it. In fact, they are then amazed that I can do it with ease. Well, I had to learn to do it.
When my mother walks she holds on to anything she can grab. This includes when I am holding her hand, strike that, when she is holding my arm. The walls, a hedge, leans over and holds on to the hood of car -- you name it.
Nevertheless, my mother can walk on a treadmill (still true today). She now walks at the pace of an 85 minute mile, strike that, now slower than slow, but walk she does. PS -- My mother is not on a walker. And, she doesn't fall.
My mother can also work out on weight machines. Giver her a hand weight and she wants one pound. Put her on the machine and its anywhere from 15-30, strike that, 10-15 pounds.
Did I mention she is 94, strike that 95 years old and suffers from Alzheimer's disease.
Exercise calms agitation associated with dementia
In a pilot study, agitation and functioning improved in a group of elderly nursing home residents suffering from severe dementia when they engaged in just 30 minutes of supervised exercise three times a week.
Edris Aman, a second-year medical student at Saint Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri, who conducted the study, told Reuters Health: "
Lots of people just assume that people with this kind of (severe) dementia cannot follow exercise instructions, but they can. It just takes more patience on the part of the exercise coordinator -- me in this case."
Aman said his study is unique because it involved people suffering from severe dementia who were living in the "special needs" units of two nursing homes. The 50 study participants, whose average age was 79, performed 15 minutes of aerobic exercise and 15 minutes of weight lifting three times a week.
"Before and after" tests revealed that patients were far less agitated after completing the 3-week exercise program. They also showed significant improvement in their functional status -- specifically, the distance they could walk in six minutes.
Aman, who presented his research today at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, said there didn't seem to be an improvement in depression with exercise; however, this was a "very low dose of exercise," he said, and "there are a lot of studies that are emerging" that do show a benefit of exercise on depression.
The take-home message, Aman said, is that "exercise benefits all; even those with severe dementia can reap the benefits of exercise if people are patient enough."
Please share this information in dementia support groups and with other dementia caregivers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE53T5ZH20090430
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Bob DeMarco is the Founder of the Alzheimer's Reading Room and an Alzheimer's caregiver. The blog contains more than 3,201 articles with more than 372,100 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL.
Original content Bob DeMarco, the Alzheimer's Reading Room
