Summary:ย Regular physical exercise, especially resistance training, can delay the onset of Alzheimerโs disease.
Using a mice model, the team demonstrated a reduction in Alzheimerโs indicators, like beta-amyloid plaques, and normalized stress hormone levels, following resistance exercise training. Not only does resistance training offer physical benefits, but it also appears to reduce Alzheimerโs-associated behavioral issues.
The study advocates for the adoption of resistance training as an affordable therapy for Alzheimerโs patients.
Key Facts:
- Researchers found that resistance training can delay the onset of Alzheimerโs symptoms and serves as a cost-effective therapeutic option.
- The study demonstrated that resistance training reduced the formation of beta-amyloid plaques, a key feature of Alzheimerโs disease, in transgenic mice models.
- Resistance training also helped in mitigating behavioral issues often associated with Alzheimerโs, such as hyperlocomotion, thereby improving overall wellbeing of the subjects.
Source:ย FAPESP
Regular physical exercise, such as resistance training, can prevent Alzheimerโs disease, or at least delay the appearance of symptoms, and serves as a simple and affordable therapy for Alzheimerโs patients.
This is the conclusion of an articleย publishedย inย Frontiers in Neuroscienceย by Brazilian researchers affiliated with the Federal University of Sรฃo Paulo (UNIFESP) and the University of Sรฃo Paulo (USP).
Although older people and dementia patients are unlikely to be able to do long daily runs or perform other high-intensity aerobic exercises, these activities are the focus for most scientific studies on Alzheimerโs.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends resistance exercise as the best option to train balance, improve posture and prevent falls.
Resistance exercise entails contraction of specific muscles against an external resistance and is considered an essential strategy to increase muscle mass, strength and bone density, and to improve overall body composition, functional capacity and balance.
It also helps prevent or mitigate sarcopenia (muscle atrophy), making everyday tasks easier to perform.
To observe the neuroprotective effects of this practice, researchers in UNIFESPโs Departments of Physiology and Psychobiology, and the Department of Biochemistry at USPโs Institute of Chemistry (IQ-USP), conducted experiments involving transgenic mice with a mutation responsible for a buildup of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain.
The protein accumulates in the central nervous system, impairs synaptic connections and damages neurons, all of which are features of Alzheimerโs disease.
During the study, which wasย funded by FAPESP, the mice were trained to climb a 110 cm ladder with a slope of 80ยฐ and 2 cm between rungs. Loads were attached to their tails corresponding to 75%, 90% and 100% of their body weight. The experiment mimicked certain kinds of resistance training undertaken by humans in fitness centers.
At the end of a four-week period of training, blood samples were taken to measure plasma levels of corticosterone, the hormone in mice equivalent to cortisol in humans; rising levels in response to stress heighten the risk of developing Alzheimerโs.
Levels of the hormone were normal (equal to those found in the control group comprising animals without the mutation) in the exercise-trained mice, and analysis of their brain tissue showed a decrease in formation of beta-amyloid plaques.
โThis confirms that physical activity can reverse neuropathological alterations that cause clinical symptoms of the disease,โ saidย Henrique Correia Campos, first author of the article.
โWe also observed the animalsโ behavior to assess their anxiety in the open field test [which measures avoidance of the central area of a box, the most stress-inducing area] and found that resistance exercise reduced hyperlocomotion to similar levels to the controls among mice with the phenotype associated with Alzheimerโs,โ saidย Deidiane Elisa Ribeiro, co-first author of the article and a researcher at IQ-USPโs Neuroscience Laboratory.
Agitation, restlessness and wandering are frequent early symptoms of Alzheimerโs and other types of dementia.
โResistance exercise is increasingly proving an effective strategy to avoid the appearance of symptoms of sporadic Alzheimerโs [not directly caused by a single inherited genetic mutation], which is multifactorial and may be associated with aging, or to delay their emergence in familial Alzheimerโs.
โThe main possible reason for this effectiveness is the anti-inflammatory action of resistance exercise,โ saidย Beatriz Monteiro Longo, last author of the article and a professor of neurophysiology at UNIFESP.
Review of the literature
The animal model study was based on aย review of the literatureย published inย Frontiers in Neuroscience, where the same group at UNIFESP compiled clinical evidence that the benefits of resistance exercise include positive effects on cognitive dysfunction, memory deficit and behavioral issues in Alzheimerโs patients, concluding that it can be an affordable alternative or adjuvant therapy.
Researchers from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) in Brazil also took part in the study.
โAlzheimerโs doesnโt only affect the patient. The entire family is affected, especially in low-income households,โ said Caroline Vieira Azevedo, first author of the review article and a graduate student at UNIFESP.
โBoth articles offer information that can be used to stimulate the creation of public policies. Imagine the cost savings if the appearance of symptoms in older patients is deferred by ten years.โ
About this exercise and Alzheimerโs disease research news
Author:ย Joao Silva
Source:ย FAPESP
Contact:ย Joao Silva โ FAPESP
Image:ย The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research:ย Open access.
โNeuroprotective effects of resistance physical exercise on the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimerโs diseaseโ by Henrique Correia Campos et al.ย Frontiers in Neuroscience
Abstract
Neuroprotective effects of resistance physical exercise on the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimerโs disease