Unlocking mental agility: New study says short exercise bouts may shield against Alzheimer’s
No matter what age, exercising has been proven to increase brain function and decrease symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. For years, researchers have sought to understand better what causes a person to contract the disease, which leads to cognitive decline.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s accounts for 60%-80% of all dementia cases, making it the most common memory-loss disease.
Researchers have concluded that there are some factors that increase the likelihood of Alzheimer’s that we cannot control. These include:
Genetics.
Family history.
Age.
Other factors including preexisting health conditions.
But new research has found that we may have more control over Alzheimer’s disease than we generally assume. A study published in Science Daily by the University of Maryland found that working out your body increases the strength of your mind as well.
“Historically, the brain networks we studied in this research show deterioration over time in people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease,” said J. Carson Smith, a kinesiology professor with the university’s School of Public Health and lead study author. “They become disconnected and, as a result, people lose their ability to think clearly and remember things. We’re demonstrating that exercise training strengthens these connections.”
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The study followed 33 participants between the ages of 71 and 85 years old who had already experienced some form of cognitive decline. For 12 weeks, half of the participants were asked to walk supervised on a treadmill four days a week.
Before and after the exercise, researchers asked the individuals to read a short story and then repeat it to the best of their ability. The remaining participants did not change their daily habits.
Along with the reading, all of those participating in the research initially took part in a wide variety of physiological and mental tests. After the 12 weeks were up, they repeated the original tests to see if exercise made a difference in cognitive ability.
Those who did the exercise showed an increase in their brain strength.
“More intriguing, the exercisers’ brains had changed. Before the study, brain scans of the older volunteers had showed mostly weak or scattershot connections between and within major brain networks,” per The Washington Post.
“The brain activity was stronger and more synchronized, demonstrating exercise actually can induce the brain’s ability to change and adapt,” Smith told Science Daily. “These results provide even more hope that exercise may be useful as a way to prevent or help stabilize people with mild cognitive impairment and maybe, over the long term, delay their conversion to Alzheimer’s dementia.”
The Deseret News previously reported on the National Institute on Aging’s research that showed “healthy lifestyle behaviors yield ‘substantially lower risk’ for Alzheimer’s disease.” Their research had participants working out for at least 150 minutes a week with healthy nutrition, intellectual stimulation and no smoking and low alcohol consumption.
“What is good for the heart is good for the brain,” said Dr. Norman Foster, neurologist and then a professor at the University of Utah in Alzheimer’s clinical and imaging research who was not involved in the study. “There’s a lot of good, objective scientific evidence that supports these kinds of changes, which also make a lot of common sense,” he told the Deseret News.
