An easy test can help population screening: balance is an important indicator of present and future health (including of the brain)
The problems of equilibrium they could be a telltale sign of a mild cognitive impairmenta condition characterized by small changes in cognitive ability, which can sometimes lead to Alzheimer
. A new test can accurately measure useful parameters and serve as a screening for the population.
The discovery
A nutrigenomics research group at the University of Tsukuba Medical School in Japan has developed a new test for measuring performance related to balance ability and has combined the results obtained with the tests commonly used for the cognitive ability screening. The team found that poor results on the physical test matched those on cognitive tests. An observation that is not new but important, because arriving earlier at the diagnosis of cognitive impairment allows you to anticipate a possible future diagnosis of Alzheimer’s
given that people with cognitive impairment have a higher risk of progressing to the disease.
The comment
The study, recently published in B
MC Geriatrics
, examined healthy volunteers aged 56 to 75 years with no apparent cognitive impairment. The results were surprising — explained the lead author of the research, Professor Naoya Yahagi —: we found that balance scores were highly associated with cognitive impairment. Because changes in vestibular function have been associated with both cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, we wanted to develop a new way to efficiently assess such changes in the general population. This new scale it may be a useful way to screen the population, says Professor Yahagi.
Risk of other diseases
The test is easy and cheap, based on a foam balance board used by many sports video game platforms.
Not the first time that equilibria has been highlighted as an important factor in predicting future health: a study by a Brazilian team found that 20% of 1,700 elderly people tested with a balance test could not balance for 10 seconds and that inability has been associated with a doubled risk of death from any cause within 10 years. The balance spies not only on cognitive problems, therefore, but general ones. Loss of balance, in fact, can be caused by a variety of factors, many of which are linked to age and frailty of the elderly in particular.
February 19, 2023 (change February 19, 2023 | 15:28)
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