Spark

by John J. Ratey

It’s well established that more women suffer from Alzheimer’s disease than men, even when the statistics are adjusted for the fact that women live longer. On the other hand, the protective effects of exercise on cognitive decline seem to be magnified among women. In a 2001 study published in the Archives of Neurology, Danielle Laurin of Quebec’s Laval University analyzed the relationship between exercise and physical activity among a group of 4,615 elderly men and women over the course of five years. Laurin found that women over sixty-five who reported higher levels of physical activity were 50 percent less likely than their inactive peers—women and men alike—to develop any form of dementia.