High intensity weight training could be prescribed in the fight against dementia according to a recent study.

Resistance training appears to improve the mental abilities of older people with mild cognitive impairment - a common precursor to dementia.

“We know weight training stimulates hormones that make muscles grow and it's possible these hormones are also having similar benefits for brain function,” said Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh, a geriatrician from the Sydney University Faculty of Health Sciences and the study's chief investigator.

The study saw 100 participants undertake six months of weight training, and in the end showed significant improvements in overall cognitive function.

It compared the effects of weight training, computer-based brain training, and a combination of the two for people over 60.

The improvements were most noticeable for abilities related to planning, organising and devising strategies, and visual memory. These improvements were still present twelve months after supervised training stopped.

The researchers will follow the group for up to five years to see if they were able to delay or even prevent the onset of dementia.

“The number of participants in the weight lifting group scoring in the normal range [on cognitive health and Alzheimer’s tests] doubled in six months,” said Professor Fiatarone Singh.

“But surprisingly those benefits didn't carry over to the combined exercise and brain training group who fared much worse.

“High levels of stress hormones are known to compromise brain health, so it could be that the combined physical and mental training program was too stressful physically or mentally.”

The study, undertaken by a consortium of Australian researchers, is published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.