Exercise helps protect Hispanic adults from late life cognitive decline

Menu Medical Home Life Sciences Home Become a Member Search Medical Home Life Sciences Home About Functional Food News Health A-Z Drugs Medical Devices Interviews White Papers More... MediKnowledge eBooks Posters Podcasts Videos Newsletters Health & Personal Care Contact Meet the Team Advertise Search Become a Member Top Health Categories Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 Diet & Nutrition Artificial Intelligence Allergies Alzheimer's & Dementia Arthritis & Rheumatology Breast Cancer Breastfeeding Cold, Flu & Cough Dermatology Diabetes Eating Disorders Eye Health Gastrointestinal Health Heart Disease Lung Cancer Mental Health Parkinson's Disease Pregnancy Sleep Urology View Health A-Z Top Health Categories Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 Eating Disorders Diet & Nutrition Eye Health Artificial Intelligence Gastrointestinal Health Allergies Heart Disease Alzheimer's & Dementia Lung Cancer Arthritis & Rheumatology Mental Health Breast Cancer Parkinson's Disease Breastfeeding Pregnancy Cold, Flu & Cough Sleep Dermatology Urology Diabetes View Health A-Z Medical Home Life Sciences Home About News Life Sciences A-Z White Papers Lab Equipment Interviews Newsletters Webinars More... eBooks Posters Podcasts Videos Contact Meet the Team Advertise Search Become a Member White Papers MediKnowledge eBooks Posters Podcasts Videos Newsletters Health & Personal Care Contact Meet the Team Advertise Search Become a Member Webinars eBooks Posters Podcasts Videos Contact Meet the Team Advertise Search Become a Member Exercise helps protect Hispanic adults from late life cognitive decline Download PDF Copy Add News Medical on Google as a preferred source The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center Aug 4 2026 Reviewed Physical activity and controlling blood sugar in midlife are associated with a significantly slower rate of cognitive decline later, with exercise particularly beneficial for Hispanics, new research from UT Health San Antonio, the academic health center of The University of Texas at San Antonio, suggests. While cardiovascular issues at midlife are known to contribute to cognitive decline and dementia, the new study is among the first to examine those factors across ethnicities. It included 402 San Antonio participants, with 52% Hispanic and the remainder non-Hispanic white, and with a mean age of 57.9 and 58.5% women. The results differed by ethnicity, with physical activity tied to slower cognitive decline especially for Hispanics, and lower fasting blood glucose levels associated with slower cognitive decline among non-Hispanic whites. " By improving cardiovascular health through modifiable lifestyle changes, there is a potential to meaningfully alleviate the public health burden of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, particularly in high-risk populations ," said Claudia Satizabal, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at UT Health San Antonio and its Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases, where she leads the Population Neuroscience Core. She is co-senior author, along with Chen-Pin Wang, PhD, associate professor-research in the Department of Population Health Sciences, of the study titled, "Longitudinal association between midlife cardiovascular health and cognitive change in a bi-ethnic cohort," published July 23 by Alzheimer's & Dementia: Behavior & Socioeconomics of Aging. The study authors all are with the Glenn Biggs Institute or The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.