Just 6 months of aerobic exercise reverses brain ageing by 9 years

According to  study, aerobic exercise for 35 minutes three times a week, may improve thinking skills in older adults with cognitive impairment. After 6 months of aerobic exercises like walking or cycling , study participants scores on thinking tests improved by the equivalent of reversing nearly nine years of ageing.

The study looked at people who had cognitive impairments without dementia, which is defined as having difficulty concentration, making decisions, or remembering, but not severe enough to be diagnosed with dementia.

The study found that exercise improved thinking skills called executive function. Executive function is a person's ability to regulate their own behaviour, pay attention, organise and achieve goals. The study found no improvement in memory.

The results are encouraging in that in just 6 months, by adding regular exercise to their lives, people who have cognitive impairments without dementia may improve their ability to plan and complete certain cognitive tasks, said study author.

The study involved 160 people with an average age of 65 and risk factors for heart disease, such as hypertension, who did not have dementia, but reported problems with thinking skills. All participants were identified as having cognitive impairments without dementia and were sedentary at the start of the study.

Researchers examined the effects of both exercise and diet, specifically the diet which is low in sodium, high fiber diet, rich in fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts, low fat dairy products, whole grains, and lean meat. That diet was designed for individuals with high blood pressure.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of the 4 groups, aerobic exercise alone, low sodium diet, but aerobic and the DASH diet, or health education, which considered of educational phone calls once every one or two weeks. People assigned to the exercise groups exercised 3 times a week for 45 minutes each session which included 10 minutes of warm-up exercise and 35 minutes of aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging or cycling on a stationary bicycle.

At both the beginning and end of the 6 month study, researchers evaluated participants' thinking and memory abilities with standardized cognitive testing, cardio-respiratory fitness with treadmill stress testing and heart disease risk factors with screenings for blood pressure, blood glucose and lipids. They also used questionnaires and food diaries to measure how closely the participants followed the low sodium diet.

Researchers found that participants who exercised showed significant improvements in thinking skills when compared to those who did not exercise. Those who took part in both the exercises and diet had average scores of nearly 47 points on the overall tests of executive thinking skills, compared to an average score of about 42 points for those with exercise and diet alone and about 38 points for those who just received health education. There was no improvement in participants who only consumed the low sodium diet, although those who exercised and consumed the low sodium diet had greater improvements compared to health education controls.

To illustrate, the researcher explained that at the start of the study, the participants had average scores for select sub-test of executive function for people who were 93 years old, who were 28 years older than their actual chronological age. After 6 months, participants who exercised and followed the low sodium diet saw their average executive function scores correspond with people who were 84, a none year improvement. For those who received only health education, their performance on executive function tests worsened by a half year from their cores at the start of the study.

Although this may suggest added benefit of the low sodium diet, when combined with exercise. The researcher says a limitation of the study was that the number of participants was relatively small and these findings should be interpreted with caution.

More research is still needed with larger samples, over longer periods of time to examine whether improvements to thinking abilities continue and of those improvements may be best achieved through multiple lifestyle approaches like exercise and diet, he said.

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An Active Lifestyle In The Elderly May Help Prevent Dementia

Staying active in the golden years may help to maintain memory, thinking skills, and reduce the risk of dementia according to a new study.

The study involved 454 older individuals of which 191 had dementia and 263 did not; those who were more active had better memory and thinking skills than those who were more sedentary, which was observed even in participants who displayed physical signs of dementia. 

Participants agreed to donate their brains for research upon death which occurred at an average age of 91, and underwent yearly physical exams as well as thinking and memory testing over a 20 year period.

Wrist worn accelerometers were given to each participant to monitor their physical activity 24/7 which ranged from walking around to engaging in more vigorous exercise; analysis of participant average daily scores showed more daily movements were associated with improved thinking and memory skills compared with less movement. Those who demonstrated better motor skills scored higher on memory and thinking tests. 

According to analysis each standard deviation increase in physical activity was associated with a 31% decreased likelihood of developing dementia; and each standard deviation increase in motor ability was associated with a 55% decreased likelihood of developing dementia. 

Association between increased physical activity and better test scores remained even after adjusting for presence of bio-markers for Alzheimer’s disease and brain lesion severity after post mortem analysis.

A Dr. states a more active lifestyle may have a protective effect on the brain, and exercise is an inexpensive way to improve health; but this study does not provide evidence for cause and effect and it may be possible that as people lose memory and thinking skills they reduce physical activity levels, more studies are needed to determine this. 

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Researchers Look to Old Algae to Combat Alzheimer's

What do algae blooms, British explorers and neurodegenerative diseases have in common? A lot, it turns out.Century-old samples from an Antarctic expedition are helping researchers fighting to find a cure for Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's diseases.

Scientists worked with the Natural History Museum in London for over five years to analyze samples of cyanobacteria mats collected in the summer of 1902 by explorer Robert Falcon Scott from ponds and sediment accumulated in the Antarctic.

The samples have been preserved for more than 100 years at the museum in London. After testing them the researchers found the samples contained toxins produced by cyanobacteria, including toxins linked to liver cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

"We jumped at the chance," one of the researcher said of the collaboration. "We thought, 'Well, we can't lose.' If there are toxins, great. That helps us understand exposure. If not, then it helps with the pollution aspect.

"But it seems like they've always been there and we've always been exposed to them. And it's important for our research to find ways to combat their effects and provide cures for people who may be susceptible to the actions of these toxins," he said.

A Closer Look at Cyanobacteria

This discovery, the result of years of collaboration between scientists, is promising for the future of medicine.

The samples were run through the lab two to three years ago, but the analysis was published recently.

"What drives us is results," he said. "Our only goal is to change patient outcomes."

Alzheimer's is a chronic, progressive neurodegenerative disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills. Estimates vary, but experts believe more than 5 million Americans may have Alzheimer's, which is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is also a progressive neurodegenerative disease. It affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, weakening muscles and affecting physical functions.

The discovery of the toxins in the Antarctic samples provides a much-needed baseline for cyanobacterial toxin levels before pollution and climate change, the scientists say.

"What this shows is that there is a background amount of toxin exposure for people," said one of the scientist. "And we're really interested in how that fits into the puzzle because we know that for certain neurological illnesses, there is a background rate. What this puzzle piece suggests is that we've always been exposed to these toxins as people, as human beings."

The low-level exposure to cyanobacteria could account for a low but constant rate of certain diseases. Recent increases in frequency and duration of cyanobacteria blooms may be associated with increases of neurodegenerative diseases, the scientists believe.

They point to Guam ALS/PDC, a disease that presents traits of ALS and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. As the name suggests, it is found in people living in Guam.

A cyanobacterial toxin, BMAA, found in contaminated traditional foodstuffs appears to trigger the disease, Cox said. The presence of BMAA has been discovered in the brains of those with the disease but not the brains of the control patients who died of causes unrelated to neurodegeneration.

Confirmation of that pattern was found in replicated experiments, showing that chronic dietary exposure resulted in brain tangles and plaques that were chemically, structurally and positionally identical to the people in Guam with ALS/PDC.

These results that were published recently.

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