Experts recommend physical exercise throughout life, but it is never too late to begin and obtain all the beneficial effects attributed to their practice, both for health, and for emotional well -being. Now, a new study by Spanish scientists adds one more reason to include it in your daily routine, since it has found that Increase physical activity between 45 and 65 could help prevent the Alzhelleswhile sedentary lifestyle could harm brain health.
This is the main conclusion of the scientific article published by the study authors in Alzheimer’s & Dementiain which the need to promote physical activity in medium -sized adults. The study has been the result of a collaboration between the Global Health Institute of Barcelona (ISGlobal), a center promoted by the ‘La Caixa’ Foundation, and Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), Research Center of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation.
It is estimated that 13% of cases of Alzheimer’s disease worldwide can be attributed to physical inactivity. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity per week or 75 to 150 minutes of intense activity per week. Although it has been widely investigated how the Exercise reduces Alzheimer’s risk by improving cardiovascular and mental healthRecent studies suggest that physical activity can have a direct impact on the development of brain pathologies related to the disease.
Physical exercise as a dementia prevention strategy
The study has been led by Eider Arenaza-Urquijo, researcher in Isglobal, and 337 people from the Alfa+longitudinal cohort participated in it, which belongs to the Alfa study (Alzheimer’s and Families). “We monitored residents in Catalonia of Medium Age with a family history of Alzheimer’s four years,” explains Müge Akıncı, a doctoral researcher in Isglobal and in the BBRC at the time of conducting the study and first author of it.
“We use physical activity questionnaires to evaluate the change in activity in a period of 4 years, and neuroimaging tests in order to analyze the effects of exercise on brain structure and function,” he adds. People were classified as adherents (that is, the WHO recommendations followed), not adherents (they performed a physical activity less than recommended) and sedentary (zero minutes of physical activity a week).
Protein Beta amyloid (Aβ) can hinder neuronal communication if it accumulates in the brainand is considered the first pathological event of Alzheimer’s disease. Those participants who increased their physical activity to the levels recommended by WHO presented a lower accumulation of beta amyloid compared to those who maintained a sedentary lifestyle or reduced their physical activity. In addition, it seems to be dose-dependent; A greater increase in activity, greater reduction in amyloid load.
Non -sedentary participants also showed a higher cortical thickness in brain regions related to Alzheimer’s disease. Cortical thickness in medial temporal areas is key to memory, so its thinning or atrophy (loss of volume) is an early sign of neurodegeneration. “Even those who carried out a physical activity less than the recommended one showed greater cortical thickness than the sedentary ones, which suggests that any level of movement, however minimal, provides health benefits,” says Müge akıncı.
“Interventions aimed at promoting the increase in physical activity could be key to reducing the incidence of the disease [de Alzheimer] in the future”
The researchers analyzed both the increase in physical activity and the adhesion to the WHO recommendations, and observed that the benefit of physical activity seems to be related to the increase in exercise over time, rather than with the fulfillment of a specific activity threshold.
“These results reinforce the importance of foster exercise at medium age As a public health strategy for the prevention of Alzheimer’s ”, highlights Eider Arenaza-Uquijo, Isglobal researcher and principal researcher of the study.“ Interventions aimed at promoting the increase in physical activity could be key to reducing the incidence of the disease in the future, ”he concludes.
Source: Barcelona Global Health Institute (ISGlobal)
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