[Harumanbo Harucheonja] "Prevent Dementia by Walking"... Dementia Overcoming Walking Events Surge with Spring

As the number of dementia patients increases every year, events to prevent dementia through walking are being held across the country.

To prevent dementia, maintaining brain health through regular exercise is most important. The hormone irisin, secreted from muscles during exercise, improves brain function and helps remove proteins that cause Alzheimer's dementia. Additionally, exercise increases blood flow to the brain, secretes brain-protective substances, and helps prevent brain atrophy, among other benefits.

Walking is an exercise that elderly people can easily practice without burden. Aerobic exercises such as walking are known to reduce the risk of dementia by 2.5 times.

Therefore, every year in April and May, when the weather warms up, the ‘Hanmaeum Dementia Overcome Nationwide Walking Event’ is held in various locations nationwide. While in the past these events mainly involved gathering in one place, recently, various walking applications (apps) are used to freely practice maintaining brain health through walking.

The Jincheon-gun Public Health Center in Chungbuk will hold the ‘Online Hanmaeum Dementia Overcome Walking Challenge’ from the 8th to the 14th of next month. Any Jincheon resident can participate using the mobile walking platform WalkOn. Participants who achieve 60,000 steps during the challenge period will be entered into a draw to receive mobile convenience store vouchers. However, to prevent excessive exercise, only up to 9,000 steps per day will be counted. The Eumseong-gun Public Health Center will also hold an online walking event in a similar manner throughout next month. Among Eumseong residents who walk a total of 200,000 steps over the month, with a maximum of 7,000 steps per day, the first 300 participants will receive a small souvenir.

The Namyangju Public Health Center Dementia Safety Center in Gyeonggi will hold a ‘Plogging Walking Event’ that also considers the environment. On the 13th of next month, participants will spend time walking while engaging in local environmental cleanup activities. Various events such as dementia prevention exercises, recycling and dementia-related OX quizzes will be prepared to improve negative perceptions about dementia.