This is the age at which your ability to walk and talk begins to decline: study

If you can walk, but cannot walk and talk, you may be suffering from declining brain health.

A new study has found that the ability to juggle dual tasks begins to decline nearly a decade earlier than previously thought, with researchers saying this struggle could be a warning sign of dementia.

Scientists from Harvard Medical School and Hebrew SeniorLife found that this function declines at age 55 and should be ‘monitored regularly from middle age’ – instead of starting at 65 – to prevent falls and injuries .

“We evaluated a large number of individuals between the ages of 40 and 64 and observed that the ability to walk under normal, calm conditions remained relatively stable in this age range,” lead researcher Junhong Zhou said in a statement. communicated.

“However, even in this relatively healthy cohort, when we asked participants to walk and perform a mental arithmetic task at the same time, we were able to observe subtle but significant changes in gait from the middle of sixth grade onwards. decade of life.”

The study suggests that not being able to walk and talk at the same time may be a warning sign of deteriorating brain health.Getty Images/iStockphoto

Researchers observed 640 Spaniards trying to multitask between May 2018 and July 2020. The study was published online last week in The Lancet Healthy Longevity.

“Dual task performance, in the areas of neurology and aging, is an important marker of brain health,” Zhou explained.

“This age-related decline in dual-task walking may indicate, at a much earlier age, when interventions should begin.”

Researchers have attributed the decline in cognition and memory to the shrinking of the frontal lobe and hippocampus and the slowing of the production of chemical messengers in the brain as people age.

Zhou noted that there were some bright spots in the results.

“We observed a portion of participants over the age of 60 who completed the dual task test as well as participants aged 50 or even younger. This means that dual-task walking performance doesn’t necessarily decline as we age, and some people seem more resilient to the effects of aging,” Zhou said.

He added: “We hope our study will spur future research to uncover lifestyle and other modifiable factors that support maintenance of dual-task performance into old age, as well as interventions that target these. factors.”

Not all news on the site expresses the point of view of the site, but we transmit this news automatically and translate it through programmatic technology on the site and not from a human editor.

goadnews

Victoriafox