Regular exercise can reduce the risk of developing dementia by about 28%. For Alzheimer’s disease specifically, the risk was reduced by 45%. These numbers come from an analysis that combined results of 16 studies into exercise and dementia.
There is some evidence to show older people can also reduce their risk of dementia with regular exercise. One study looked at the amount of daily activity of older people. The ones who exercised the least (the bottom 10%) were more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as the ones who exercised the most (the top 10%).
I’m a cyclist (as well as other exercises) in a vague attempt to outrun old age…
Potential for reduced premature mortality by current and increased bicycle commuting: a health impact assessment using registry data on home and work addresses in Stockholm, Sweden
ResultsThe current number of bicycle commuters were 53 000, and the scenario estimated an additional 111 000. Their mean bicycle distances were 4.5 and 3.4 km, respectively. On average these respective amounts of physical activity reduced the yearly mortality by 16% and 12%, resulting in 11.3 and 16.2 fewer preterm deaths per year.
There are several tests you can do yourself to find out whether you are likely to be infirm for the latter years of your life - such as being able to stand up from a sitting position from the floor without using hands, elbows or knees touching the floor.
I’m with Tom on most of these points, I really don’t think cyclists red-jumping is a major problem, although yes, it happens, but the instance of it causing injury is vanishingly small. I have been known to go through a red myself where it’s clearly safe to do so, like the American right turn on red kinda thing, and I think getting pedantic about cyclists breaking the rules is unhelpful.
Where I differ is that I don’t believe that simply implementing more pro-cycling rules is the answer. Increasing proficiency, increasing awareness, increasing cyclists’ confidence to assert their right to be on the road and to be treated with suitable respect by motorists is a better approach. Anything that encourages cyclists to believe that cycling is dangerous is a bad thing, IMO,
Nor do I accept that there’s any anti-cyling, pro-motorist agenda at work. Quite the opposite, most city, and indeed rural, road schemes in recent years have been all about slowing down car journeys, which although as a motorist I hate, I must accept reduces accidents.
I drive a car and i don’t go through red lights either but that doesn’t mean that other motorists don’t.
Same for cyclists, you might not got through red lights but other cyclists do.
There are good and bad cyclists just the same as there are good and bad drivers.
It’s the principle as far as I’m concerned, the rules are there for everyone and should be followed by everyone.
90% of the time there’s probably no problem if a cyclist decides that the red light on a pedestrian crossing doesn’t apply to him and speeds through anyway but accidents do happen.
I was a witness to one a few years ago and had to go to court to give a statement. The cyclist decided to go through the light and dodge the crossing pedestrians but he misjudged it and slammed into a pushchair being pushed across causing some nasty injuries to the child and injuring the mother.
Such incidents may be rare but they can and do happen.
The Netherlands would not be a good place to do a study. Nobody wears a cycle helmet there and there is much data showing that a knock on the head (or several) can increase the risk of dementia.
The health authorities there are constantly pushing for people to wear helmets when cycling but people like to cherry-pick data.
For example, often cited by anti-helmet people: after helmet introduction in ski resorts in the US, there was no reduction in deaths from skiing/snowboarding.
What was actually the case was the number of severe head trauma cases was massively reduced but the type of skier who generally dies is a beginner on a blue run going at full speed into a tree. In these cases, a helmet won’t help.
Yes, there are rare. I gave some statistics further up.
We shouldn’t focus on the rarities. It’s not conducive to forming good road policy but people seem to do that if this thread is anything to go by.
(again, a reason why direct democracy fails when road policy decisions are made).
Everyone is convinced they are a good cyclist/ driver but that cannot be the case.
For the record, I do not go through red lights on my bicycle and nor do I use my phone when driving.
There are a few d1ckhead cyclists who see the SlowUp events as a race and try to do it as quickly as possible. Competing against little children? Seriously?
I have no idea…but do you think there are many accidents involving bicycles? The Netherlands seems the safest place for cycling. And out of those which do happen, how serious are the head injuries? Correlation is not causation.
I had a bike accident last summer. I was riding down a narrow windy road with no bike path and had a white van tailgait me. I became scared, saw a space along side the road and swerved into it far too fast. I went over a bump and flew. Luckily, I had a helmut on and landed on my hands and knees. I still don’t know how. The white van whizzed past me but both drivers behind him stopped and helped me.
I sprained my wrist and had some scrapes on my legs and knees but I was otherwise fine.
The first thing the doctor will ask is “How did it happen?” (assuming the patient is conscious).
“I fell of my bike when the wheel slipped out crossing a wet tram line rail.”
Doctor writes in report “Head trauma because of cycle accident”.
I was coming down a steep mountain road the other day on my bike. It was narrow but wide enough for a bike to pass a car going the other way.
A VW van was coming up but there were some hikers standing chatting on the car’s side of the road.
Instead of slowing down and waiting for me to pass, the van pulled out past the hikers on to my side of the road. There was probably 2cm between me and the van’s door mirror and I was off the road and in the gutter. Whilst he was accelerating towards me, I was braking hard.
No, I meant how do you know dementia cases in the Netherlands are caused by head injuries as a result of bicycle accidents? I thought it was pretty clear what I have asked.
I will repeat; as you seemed to argue this angle
Someone said
And then you answered
The Netherlands would not be a good place to do a study. Nobody wears a cycle helmet there and there is much data showing that a knock on the head (or several) can increase the risk of dementia.
The health authorities there are constantly pushing for people to wear helmets when cycling but people like to cherry-pick data.
I DO NOT DISPUTE THAT WEARING A HELMET IS NECESSARY; that was not the point of my question. You seemed to argue that bicycling reduces the cases of dementia, which apparently doesn’t really apply to the Netherlands, of all places.
In all fairness, I should have probably quoted at least 2 more sentences, so I will give you that.
I did not ask Tom to explain me that, but of course he jumped at the first opportunity. Maybe my quote was incomplete, but I did ask him an entirely different thing.
This is just ridiculous.
Well at least now I know folks in the Netherlands get dementia because they repeatedly hit their head while on a bicycle and not wearing a helmet.
Wow. Talk about twisting words…You claimed that cyclists “tend to live longer than non-cyclists” and that “cyclists are far less likely to spend the last ten years of their life infirm in a chair having their bottoms wiped by a carer.” Can you provide data to support these statements? That’s all I asked.
He can’t provide that data otherwise he would have done it already, I guess.
Cycling is most probably no better than any other type of regular physical exercise. And dementia has multiple causes btw. My OH’s grandmother lived well into her nineties (we thought she was going to be a centenarian, was short a few years) without bicycles and gym and stuff. She has worked all her life outside in the garden, her parents had a big farm in her youth. And I mean heavy lifting and other physical work beyond what a normal woman would do.
