Minding Your Steps Can Determine if You’re All There Upstairs - By Brent Dodge

Walking is one thing. Walking and thinking is entirely another. In fact, doctors think they’ve discovered a rather simple way to early detect Alzheimer’s. That’s right. By watching you walk.

According to the new research, the way you walk can tell a lot about your cognitive function . . . slowed or altered gait, for instance. And by having you do some basic brain work while walking, such as counting backwards as you walk, it’s possible for the trained observer to pick up changes in your walking pattern. For some people that change could be easily screened to help figure out the presence and, to some extent, the severity of Alzheimer’s.

As one doctor put it, “It may be that the brain is already so compromised that it cannot coordinate its circuits to efficiently manage such “dual tasks.”

Notably, the worse the walking pattern, the worse the presence of Alzheimer’s.

For the rest of this informative article from the New York Times, click here.
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