Exercise Might Just Be The Best Weapon Against Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. 70% of the people suffering from dementia have Alzheimer’s. Having Alzheimer’s means having problems with memory.

Daily tasks such as planning, following conversations and taking decisions will become increasingly difficult as time moves on.

Other difficulties:

• Using and understanding language
• Recognising objects and sounds, and knowing what it’s for
• Thinking about and judging situations
• Performing tasks and doing them in the right order
• Remembering new information
• Remembering information which has been remembered for a longer period of time
• Remembering where the person is
• What day, month or year it is

Scientists think that the problem lies with proteïn (beta-amyloid) aggregation in the brain cells. Plaques are formed because of this aggregation. Tangles are formed inside dying cells. These tangles are twisted fibers of a protein called tau.

Because of this, nutrients and other essential supplies are not able to move through the cells, these cells die as a result.

Getting Alzheimer’s just seems to be a case of bad luck.

Fighting Alzheimer’s

To fight Alzheimer’s we should look into eliminating stress, improving our diet, sleep, cognitive training and exercise. And exercise might be in the lead for lifestyle changes.

Exercise, even just a little, can lower blood pressure and improve cardiovascular health which directly affects the risk of Alzheimer’s. Both too high and too low of a blood pressure heightens the risks of getting Alzheimer’s.

What is conclusive, in lab mice at least, is that exercise on a treadmill can reduce the build-up of plaques and tangles. This modest miracle is thought to happen by activating an intriguing cellular phenomenon called autophagy (Greek for ‘eating of self’), a specialised kind of cellular housekeeping that clears out damaged or unwanted goods and introduces new ones after recycling the old, all as part of an adaptive and protective process to help neurons better cope with stress and extend their lifespan.

Apparently there is a protein called BDNF which stands for brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

In December 2010, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recruited 120 people with an average age of 67 and had them perform either moderate aerobic exercise or simple stretches three days a week.

Strikingly, follow-up MRI scans revealed that those who exercised netted a 2 per cent increase in the size of their hippocampus. That isn’t bad considering that 1.5 per cent shrinkage is normal for this age.

By exercising you increase the levels of BDNF, which encourages the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses in the entire nervous system. BDNF might just protect us against the occurrence of dementia and Alzheimer’s.

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