According to a recent study published in May in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience exercise may help largely in keeping the brain robust in people who have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Further it specifies that not only exercise but any physical activity can help to reduce and slow down this disease.

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by a gradual and then quickening loss of memory along with cognitive functioning. It has been found out that it can strike anyone irrespective of family history.

For this particular study, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio recruited almost 100 older men and women, aged 65 to 89, many of whom had a family history of Alzheimer's disease. Genetic testing was done among the volunteers. Results showed that almost half of the group carried the e4 gene. The e4 gene is a gene whose presence causes a substantially increased risk of developing the disease.

Further, study was done on how exercise helps in affect the disease's progression. Dealing with this issue a brain scan study conducted in 2011 conducted by the researchers from the Cleveland Clinic concluded that elderly people with the e4 gene who exercised regularly had significantly more brain activity during cognitive tests than people with the e4 gene who did not exercise at all.

The next experiment that was follow up asked the 100 volunteers how often and intensely they exercised and it was found out that half of them did no exercise at all and the other half walked, jogged or otherwise exercised which really helped them.