How Exercise Helps Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease | NOVA

When you exercise, your brain loves it. Of course, you may not like the kickboxing class or the sweaty minutes of running on Saturday afternoon, but your brain is crazy about it. Exercise does more than just increase muscle tone.It’s not just about goose energy levels, uplifting and fighting depression And anxiety. It also improves problem-solving skills and memory.And research is showing more and more, it protects from Alzheimer’s disease— Both delaying the onset of the disease and delaying the decline of already diagnosed patients.

Alzheimer’s disease is increasing as the baby boomer generation ages and more Americans live longer. By 2020, about 5.8 million people in the United States will live in this most common form of dementia, with progressive inflammation and malformed protein entanglement in the brain. amnesia Unable to perform daily tasks.

Despite decades of research, effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease have missed researchers. Even a complete explanation of what is happening in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease is out of reach. This is because the disease is incredibly modest and multifaceted, says Fang Yu, a researcher at Arizona State University who specializes in applying new dementia science to human clinical trials. .. Alzheimer’s disease affects the myriad processes of our most complex organ, the brain, but most treatments developed so far can address only one aspect of the disease at a time. She says she didn’t. “Even if there are medicines that can help target a particular route, there are many routes that are needed.”

Therefore, Yu’s research on Alzheimer’s disease often focuses on the power to move our bodies. Exercise is unique in that it also affects the body and brain in many ways, she says, and is an important intervention in dealing with the complexity of Alzheimer’s disease.

It’s “very special,” agrees Christian Lan, a neuroscientist at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. “It may seem like you’re doing something that has nothing to do with your brain,” she says, when she’s dancing, biking, and running. “But you are actually getting an improvement in cognitive function.”

How does it work?

Perhaps the easiest way to take exercise safety measures against Alzheimer’s disease is to improve cardiovascular health. The effects of a good sweating session are not limited to our minds, they also help improve the condition of other organs and blood vessels. These healthier blood vessels provide an upgrade of connections between brain cells called neurons, says Wrann. The reinforced wiring makes it easier for nutrient oxygen to enter, waste products to come out, and neurons to talk to each other. Also, improving heart and lung health seems to help the brain absorb glucose more efficiently and keep neurons healthy.

plus, Mouse researchExercise has been shown to be a rare cause of “adult neurogenesis,” or growth of new neurons in adulthood. This is an incomplete, but general source of new Alzheimer’s disease science. .. It’s hard to completely prove that the same thing is happening to humans, One of the key players is irisinOrchid, a hormone produced by muscles in response to exercise, explains. Irisin is special because it carries the blood-brain barrier, a path through the barricades of tissues and blood vessels that prevent harmful substances from reaching the brain.

Once inside, Irisin helps the brain It creates a neurotransmitter called BDNF that is important for hippocampal health. The hippocampus is central to learning and memory in the brain, and the hippocampus in patients with Alzheimer’s disease tends to shrink as their health deteriorates, Yu says. The ability to germinate new cells in the hippocampus and remove unwanted connections (the two processes supported by BDNF) is the key to stabilizing and protecting the hippocampus.

A series of studies in Wrann’s lab in Boston have also shown that irisine produced during exercise has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect on the brain, at least in mice.It can be an important insight as some new studies point out inflammation, Not the previously involved amyloid plaques, as a possible cause of neuronal death in Alzheimer’s disease. Inflammation is caused not only by viruses and bacteria, but also by an immune response to negative stimuli, such as accidentally folded proteins in the brain. In patients with Alzheimer’s disease, the immune system can react to the presence of these plaques and attack them, Wrann explains, and with that enthusiasm, it can also attack the synapses that connect neurons. “When it goes completely out of control, it causes this“ friendly fire ”that damages neurons,” she says. However, her research shows that irisine may bind to receptors in specialized cells deep in the brain and suppress its inflammatory response.

And the last piece of the puzzle is sleepy— It’s not a kind of exercise in itself, but I was involved in the love triangle between exercise and Alzheimer’s disease. When it comes to preventing dementia, sleep and exercise can work together, says neuroscientist Dr. Miranda Chapel Farley. Candidate for the University of California, Irvine. According to her research, increasing exercise improves sleep quality. It is an important protecting factor for Alzheimer’s disease. And people who get better sleep are more likely to be reluctant to exercise. Together, they create a strong breakwater against dementia and represent your dangerous and neglected lifestyle factors, says Chapel-Farley.

What kind of exercise is best?

Aerobic exercise seems to be the champion when it comes to protecting from Alzheimer’s disease and maintaining executive function. Of course, most of the mice participating in the Alzheimer’s disease trial are running on their wheels, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Cycling, dancing, swimming, or heart rate-raising activities are good candidates, Yu says. That is because it has the potential to raise BDNF levels. It promotes blood flow and strengthens blood vessels. It reduces “white matter high signals,” which are abnormal changes that affect the way the brain transmits electrical signals.

Recent studies have also shown that resistance-based muscle-building exercises may support a wide range of cognitive functions. The effect seems to be particularly promising for patients who have already been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which may help delay their decline, Yu adds. The goal there is not to improve, but to delay deterioration. “And that’s basically what my research has shown: the movement can be leveled and stabilized,” she says.

Other types of movements that incorporate tai chi and mindfulness also reduce stress and inflammation and improve sleep, she adds. And some studies suggest that a combination of many types of exercise may provide a stronger improvement than a single activity.In the review of 71 studies on exercise and dementiaYu and her colleagues have found that the most consistently effective exercise is the “mixture”, which is a blend of muscle building and aerobic exercise.

Still, “it’s important to emphasize that there’s a lot we don’t know yet,” says Chappel-Farley. There are many forms of exercise that can be adjusted by duration, intensity, frequency, and timing. “It’s not entirely clear which one is best.” Does our brain need some exercise to benefit? Are there any discoveries in extensive mouse research on this topic that cannot be communicated to humans?

Wrann has stated that the data are promising so far, showing that the more you exercise, the more benefits you will get. And what are the risks really? “My big message is that exercise is good for you,” Yu agrees. “Even if in the future it turns out that it won’t prevent Alzheimer’s disease in everyone, it’s good for your health and quality of life.”

However, Ran also pays attention to those who are unable to exercise due to disability or physical limitation, or who may develop Alzheimer’s disease despite a lot of exercise. There are no silver dementia bullets yet. While it is unlikely that researchers will be able to develop drugs that can affect the body in as many ways as exercise, she looks forward to the potential of irisine as a source of new medications. She wonders if it is possible to use irisine to create a drug that outweighs the positive effects of exercise, as it is already a powerful anti-inflammatory agent that can twist the blood-brain barrier. Inflammation of the brain seems to be at the heart of many neurological conditions. That way, “you can reach out to people with Alzheimer’s disease or better,” she says.