Men in jobs with hard physical work have a higher risk of developing dementia compared to men doing sedentary work, new research reveals.

Based on the findings, researchers urge health authorities to make their recommendations concerning physical activity more specific.

The muscles and joints are not the only parts of the body to be worn down by physical work. The brain and heart suffer too. The new study from the University of Copenhagen shows that people doing hard physical work have a 55% higher risk of developing dementia than those doing sedentary work. The figures have been adjusted for lifestyle factors and lifetime, among other things.

The general view has been that physical activity normally reduces the risk of dementia, just as another study recently showed that a healthy lifestyle can reduce the risk of developing dementia conditions by half.

The form of physical activity is vital, though, says Kirsten Nabe-Nielsen, an associate professor from the public health department at the University of Copenhagen.

“Before the study we assumed that hard physical work was associated with a higher risk of dementia. It is something other studies have tried to prove, but ours is the first to connect the two things convincingly,” says Nabe-Nielsen, who headed the study with the National Research Centre for the Working Environment with help from Bispebjerg-Frederiksberg Hospital.

Read the full article about dementia risk by at Futurity.