Working out has many health benefits, but a new study shows young men hitting up the gym more often will reduce the risk of developing epilepsy.
"Exercise may affect epilepsy risk in two ways. It may protect the brain and create stronger brain reserve, or it may simply be that people who are fit early in life tend to also be fit later in life, which in turn affects disease risk," Ben-Menachem said.
The findings were published in the Sept. 4 online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology:
For the study, 1.17 million Swedish men were given cycle tests that measured cardiovascular fitness when they enlisted for mandatory military service at age 18. The participants were then assessed for epilepsy for an average of 25 years. During follow-up, 6,796 men were diagnosed with epilepsy...
The proportion of men with high fitness who developed epilepsy in the study was 0.48% (2,381 out of 496,973 with high fitness). The proportion of men with medium fitness who developed epilepsy was 0.62 percent (3,913 out of 629,876 with medium fitness). The proportion of men with low fitness who developed epilepsy was 1.09 percent (502 out of 46,230 with low fitness).
Researcher's findings showed men who participated in vigorous exercise were 79 percent less likely to develop epilepsy than those who are not as active. Compared to men who had a "medium fitness level," the vigorous exercise gave them a 36 percent lower risk of developing the disease.
"There are a host of ways exercise has been shown to benefit the brain and reduce the risk of brain diseases," said study author Elinor Ben-Menachem, PhD, MD, with the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and an associate member of the American Academy of Neurology, in a news release. "This is the first study in humans to show that exercise may also reduce the risk of epilepsy, which can be disabling and life-threatening."
