Exercising
for 150 minutes each week may be the best treatment for Alzheimer's!!!
This article was recently published in Journal
of Alzheimer’s disease. I thought it was interesting because it was done with
people who have Alzheimer’s disease and not animals. This study also correlates
with one of the papers we just looked at about how exercise can help
neuroinflammation in mice carrying NSE/htau23.
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative
disease, which is caused by inflammation in the brain. Aging mostly causes this
disease but stress has its major effects as well. This disease causes dementia
and as it progresses it worsens over time. One of the reasons that are known to
be one of the causes of this disease is the Tau protein abnormality. This
abnormality causes dysfunction in the microtubules of neurons that starts
malfunction in between neurons. This causes an immune reaction that increase
inflammation in the brain and leads to worsening of the problem in time.
A study was recently done on a group of
participants with early Alzheimer’s disease to see the effects of exercise on
the progression of the disease. This study was done on two groups of people; 17
of which were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and 18 people as control who
were similar in age, gender, education,
genetic risk and had similar medication use. The participants went through a
moderate intensity exercise on a treadmill for 12 weeks. Then they were tested
for a memory test and a list-learning task.
After the tests were done
the patients had improved in fitness levels by 10% and had much improvement
with the memory and list learning tests. They had improved brain activity in
areas of their brains, which were used to diagnose them with Alzheimer’s disease.
I believe that exercise is
one of the best remedies for most diseases. Instead of taking medications with
many known and unknown side effects, one could exercise to prevent different
illnesses. If 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) a WEEK can help an
Alzheimer’s patient improve then it will help in many preventative ways!
The link:
Whiteman, Honor. "Powerful
effect of exercise' against Alzheimer." Exercising for 150 minutes
each week may be the best treatment for Alzheimer's. (Aug, 2013): n. page.
Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/264201.php>.
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ReplyDeleteHey Parsa,
ReplyDeleteI also agree that execise can play an important role in treating certain diseases. In another article I found, (Exercise-induced hippocampal anti-inflammatory response in aged rats), scientists found that aerobic exercise increases anti-inflammatory cytokines in the brain, espeically in the hippocampus,a region known for memory storage (and memory loss is often associated with aging and Alzheimer's disease). This article also focuses on how as we age, anti-inflammatory cytokines decrease and pro-inflammatory cytokines increase, which probably plays a role in brain damage and deterioration. With daily exercise, anti-inflammatory cytokines were increased, which could be a preventive measure to many neuroinflammatory diseases.
Again though, I wonder how the amount and intensity of exercise performed by the rats would translate to human exercise.
Here is the link:
http://www.jneuroinflammation.com/content/10/1/61
I actually thought about the point you brought up about the intensity of exercises of the rats compared to humans when I was reading this article. I thought about it in a way that if you are used to exercising regularly the intensity of your exercises would have to be much more to see improvement, but for someone that barely exercises, the results from just a medium intensity exercise would be great!
DeleteOne thing that I have learned repeatedly is that exercise is beneficial in so many ways. It is a common theme in many of my physiology classes. 2 hours and 30 minutes a week is definitely manageable for most people. Even busy people can set aside 30 minutes a day to do something active!
ReplyDeleteExactly! The effects of exercise have been great through all the studies that I have seen that try to use it as a treatment. Personally I have started exercising constantly at least 3 times a week for about two hours each session, and the difference in my energy level, stamina, focus, and even learning I have seen is incredible!
DeleteI really liked the set up of this study. Though this was only a 12 week study, it would be interesting to see how much improvement there over a longer period of time as well as incorporation of other types of activities. I wonder if it makes a difference that they perform the memory test before physical exercise or if they perform the memory test before and after the physical exercise.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree Julianne. This was a short timespan study and it would have been an even more interesting study if it was done over a longer period of time, but if you think about it, this study was done over 12 weeks and showed this much improvement in the overall health of the subjects. I'm sure that if they did this study over a long period the benefits and their positive results would have increased dramatically!
DeleteThis is another straight forward study that serves as a really great starting point for more intense research. This group of researchers is very animated that their findings are very significant in the fact that they proclaim multiple times in the article that they have shown that "no drug can do what we showed is possible with exercise." This is a pretty deep statement and their findings do at least persuade us into believing it.
ReplyDeleteThe preliminary memory test, exercise program, and memory final test model that they used is very straight forward. They were able to show very positive results with higher scores in the final memory test after the exercise program. That being said, I'm not too sure that they can claim exercise as the most effective treatment as loudly as they are until more research is completed. More specifically, it would be great to evolve the studies to include measurements of brain state throughout the entire exercise program. I want to see the parts of the brain that are super stimulated during the specific exercises the researchers took them through. What is the state of the brain as the body recovers from the day's exercise? While their studies are great and I personally think exercise will emerge as (one of) the most effective defense against neurodegenerative disease, I look forward to seeing more scientifically significant results to more widely define it as the best treatment.
Parsa,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very nice supporting article for our last discussion and suspicion of whether it is just a matter of aging or if Alzheimer's can actually be prevented through means of exercise. In the study is seems that not only did they find that exercise can help prevent the disease, but those diagnosed can actually improve! that's amazing considering we don't fully understand that disease itself. I would hope that the subjects of this study, after seeing their own progress, continued to exercise at least a few hours a week!
Exercising a few hours a week to prevent having Alzheimer's disease is well worth the work if you ask me! There are many ways to exercise whether it be walking across campus to even gardening (which may require a longer period of time depending on how active one is at it). One thing that I have noticed is that there are a lot more opportunities to engage in an active lifestyle; an example of this is cross fit and even the mud runs. If you can have fun while becoming fit and reduce your risk of Alzheimer's disease, then it is well worth it.
ReplyDeleteI think I may have already mentioned this in another comment, but I did a presentation in one of my classes last semester about dementia and ways to reduce your chance of getting it, and exercise was the most effective solution. Exercise not only keeps you in shape, but it also has positive effects on your brain. I think one of the most repeated themes of this class is that exercise can help your body in so many ways, especially as we get older and we start having to deal with even more health problems.
ReplyDeleteI'm definetely on pro exercise, since it's been proven to have many positive effects on different diseases and illnesses. I mean one can automatically feel and see the results right after it. The clarity and positivity it gives to your thoughts, it's great. And from what they recommend, it only takes 30 minutes, I say make it an hour and add 30 minutes of learning something new or perhaps a puzzle and you're on your way to preventing Alzheimers and many other brain diseases.
ReplyDeleteParsa, I also believe that exercise is the best remedy for many diseases. I can see how improvement in brain cognition can increase with exercise. Exercise is a great way to activate the nervous system and set off chemicals like serotonin and dopamine that affect our mood. This helps with memory and effectiveness, which is why, is makes sense that these patients had significant improvement with their brain activity. I’m impressed that 10% of the patients had improved because I know that 12 weeks is a short period for a neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s.
ReplyDeleteOn WebMD I read that exercise can cause new stem cells to grow that allows the brain to refresh itself. If that’s the case then 150 minutes of exercise a week is worth all the amazing health benefits.
http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/train-your-brain-with-exercise