Question:
I had a very interesting conversation with a guy this weekend. The guyis a retired chemistry professor. He is 76 and looks like he is 60. Hewas telling me that there has been some research in German that showsthat there is a positive correlation between balance and aging. Peoplewho age very slowly are usually better able to maintain their balance.and, people who age sooner then the average are unable to maintain theirbalance very well. The balance thing corresponds with brain activity.The more brain activity you have the slower you age.

What's your ideas???

Answer: It is possible that he heard about this new study from Albert EinsteinColl. of Med

Reported November 28, 2002Change in Walking may Signal DementiaNov. 28, 2002 (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Doctors have a new tool that mayhelp them predict who will develop a form of dementia later in life.The research from Albert Einstein College of Medicine finds thepresence of an abnormal gait in elderly people without dementiapredicts the risk of developing dementia. The form of dementia isnon-Alzheimer's dementia.

Gait disorders are increasingly common with advancing age. Between 8percent and 19 percent of elderly people have this disorder. Doctorsspeculate a gait disorder may be able to predict dementia, but theyhave not been completely sure of the connection. They often reportpatients who have Alzheimer's have a gait disorder, so they theorizedit might be a warning sign. This study looked at the relationshipbetween the two.

Doctors studied 422 people age 75 and older. At the beginning of thestudy, 85 people had abnormal walking patterns. During the follow-upperiod, there were 125 newly diagnosed cases of dementia, 70 of themAlzheimer's and 55 non-Alzheimer's. The researchers write, "Subjectswith neurologic gait abnormalities had a greater risk of developmentof non-Alzheimer's dementia."

They conclude these findings indicate a strong connection between gaitdisorders and dementia. "If replicated, these findings would provide astrategy for identifying a group at very high risk for vasculardementia and would facilitate the introduction of preventiveinterventions designed to reduce the incidence of non-Alzheimer'sdementia, especially vascular dementia," say researchers.