Working on your muscles can help delay the onset Alzheimer Symptoms, researchers have found.
Researchers from the Federal University of São Paulo and the University of São Paulo in Brazil have found strong evidence for this weight training – where muscles are trained against a weight or force – could have significant consequences for the brains of people with dementia.
Before you rush to renew your gym membership or break out the home workout equipment, consider that it did a mouse model study. Nevertheless, the same principles should also apply to humans.
“This confirms that physical activity can reverse neuropathological changes that cause clinical symptoms of the disease,” says Neuroscientist Henrique Correia Campos from the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP).
Mice with a genetic mutation that leads to the formation of amyloid beta plaques in the brain – as observed in individuals with Alzheimer’s -were subjected to a four-week resistance training program using ladders and weights before being compared to mice without the mutation.
After exercise, not only was plaque formation reduced, but plasma levels of the hormone corticosterone in the resistance-training mice were similar to plasma levels in control mice. Corticosterone corresponds to human cortisol, which is produced when the body is under stress previously linked to Alzheimer’s.
B. Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia hike and restlessness in mice, the team also examined the amyloid beta plaque mice for anxiety. Again, strength training seemed to help.
“We also observed the animals’ behavior to assess their anxiety in the field test and found that resistance exercise reduced hyperlocomotion to a similar level as the control animals in mice with the Alzheimer’s-associated phenotype.” says Neuroscientist Deidiane Elisa Ribeiro from the University of São Paulo in Brazil.
Apart from considering possible differences between mouse and human physiology, the exact role played by protein plaques Alzheimer’s is still a matter of debate, leaving room for debate as to what benefit resistance training might have for people with dementia.
Still, strength training has few downsides, especially as we age. It increases muscle mass and strength, increases bone densityIt helps with balance and makes it easier to perform everyday tasks. It’s also one of those exercises that gets easier to stick with as you get older, so there’s little reason not to incorporate it into your daily routine. The sooner the better!
previous studies have found that this particular type of exercise can strengthen connections in the brain that are likely to be severed as dementia sets in. So it looks like an activity like this can both protect against dementia and alleviate the symptoms – assuming the same effects show up in people, of course.
Scientists are still trying to unravel the connection between Alzheimer’s, its causes and overall consequences the body gets olderbut strength training could potentially help in all three areas.
“The possible main reason for this effectiveness is the anti-inflammatory effects of resistance exercise,” says UNIFESP Neurophysiologist Beatriz Monteiro Longo.
The research was published in frontiers of neuroscience.
