Exercise May Slow Alzheimers Disease
April 27, 2005 -- A new study shows that may be
The report -- published in The Journal of Neuroscience -- focused on mice with genes for an Alzheimer's-like brain disease.
After five months, the exercising mice had as much as half the amount of substances called amyloid plaques in their brains as sedentary mice. Amyloid plaques are clumps found in brains of patients who have suffered from Alzheimer's disease, the progressive brain disease that destroys a person's memory and ability to learn and to live an independent lifestyle.
"Exercise is a simple behavioral intervention that is giving rise to less brain pathology and faster cognitive skills," researcher Carl Cotman, PhD, tells KB120.
"I think it's keeping the brain healthier longer," says Cotman, a neurology professor and director of the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at the University of California, Irvine.
'Very Exciting' Finding
"This is a very exciting piece of basic research," says Robert S. Wilson, PhD, senior neuropsychologist with the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago.
"The idea that simple exercise could achieve such dramatic reduction in amyloid in the brain is very, very exciting," Wilson tells KB120.
"We think it's a pretty exciting study that has the potential to encourage human studies," says Cotman, adding that more work is needed. "These are mutant mice; they're not normal mice. We do need to translate this to higher animal studies and humans."
Born to Run
Cotman says mice "just love to run" and didn't get any coaxing or training to use the running wheels every day. Some of the mice got regular, voluntary exercise; the others were basically sedentary.
Other recent mouse studies have shown brain benefits in "enriched environments" with running wheels. In those studies, cages have also included other toys and other mice.
"My guess is that a lot of these things add up," Cotman tells KB120. "Our study shows exercise by itself is sufficient and may be the key component."
Topics for further study include whether daily exercise is needed, at what age exercise needs to start, and what underlying mechanisms might tie in with other interventions, says Cotman.
Wilson says there's "pretty good evidence" that the same might be true for people, noting recently published studies.
For instance, the Honolulu-Asia Aging study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association last September, tracked the risk of dementia and walking in more than 2,200 older men. The researchers say their findings suggested that "walking is associated with a reduced risk of dementia" and that promoting active lifestyles in physically capable men could help late-life mental function.
In the same issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, a report from the Nurses' Health study - a large, long-term study of more than 18,000 women - showed that higher levels of leisure time activity were associated with better mental performance.
Those studies show an association but not solid proof. Ideally, a long-term clinical trial would be done to test exercise's brain benefits in people, say Cotman and Wilson.
According to the Alzheimer's Association, evidence indicates that They say that modifiable risk factors include controlling high blood pressure, maintaining normal weight and cholesterol levels; and
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