“Physical inactivity is a recognized modifiable risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease“, however, its relationship with the progression of the pathology in humans has not been sufficiently clarified until now. And this limits its effective translation into prevention trials.
For this reason, a team of scientists from Australia, Canada and the United States followed almost 300 people with Alzheimer’s for 14 years. preclinical, who had no symptoms of the disease, but had a high accumulation of Tau and Beta-amyloid proteins in the brain, which made them at-risk patients.
Physical activity, even moderate
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The scientists, who publish their research in the journal Nature Medicine, They wanted to find out if physical activity, even moderate, influenced the development of the disease. Their results have confirmed yes.
Older adults who walk fewer than 3,000 steps a day and have high levels of the Beta-amyloid protein in the brain, clearly associated with the development of Alzheimer’s, show more rapid cognitive decline compared to more active people.
The more steps, the less Alzheimer’s
On the contrary, cognitive wear and tear and loss of functionality in activities of daily living are delayed by an average of three years in people who walk between 3,000 and 5,000 steps a day, and by an average of seven years in those who walk at least between 5,000 and 7,500 steps a day.
“Our finding shows that increasing the number of steps, even slightly, can help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in people at high risk of developing it,” says one of the authors, Jasmeer Chhatwal, a neurologist at Mass General Brigham, a medical research consortium between Harvard University and the most prestigious hospitals in Boston.
In Chhatwal’s opinion, his discovery would explain why some people at risk of Alzheimer’s deteriorate more quickly than others at a cognitive level, while allowing lifestyle changes to be used as a therapeutic strategy.
Measurement of steps, proteins and cognitive decline
Researchers analyzed data from 296 participants ages 50 to 90 from the Harvard Brain Aging Study.all of them without cognitive impairment at the beginning of the study.
They used a non-invasive test that measures the metabolic activity of the human body in real time (Positron Emission Tomography, PET) to measure the basal levels of Beta-amyloid in the plaques and Tau in the neurofibrillary tangles of the participants’ brains.
At the same time, they measured the participants’ physical activity with waist pedometers.
Participants underwent annual follow-up cognitive assessments over a period of 2 to 14 years (average 9.3 years), and a subgroup also underwent PET testing to analyze changes in Tau protein.
Every step counts
The results showed that a higher number of steps was related to slower rates of cognitive decline and slower accumulation of Tau proteins in participants with high baseline levels of Beta-amyloid protein.
Exercise, therefore, causes the accumulation of the Tau protein to be slower, and a lack of it has the opposite effect.
“Our study shows that every step counts, and even a small increase in activity results in improved brain and cognitive health. Staying physically active is one way to protect the brain,” says another author, Wai-Ying Wendy Yau, a neurologist at Mass General Brigham, in a statement. from the center.
Future clinical trials
Looking ahead, researchers plan to delve deeper into which aspects of physical activity may be most important in slowing down Alzheimer’s, and the biological mechanisms underlying this influence.
For now, they consider it essential that this work can help design future clinical trials that test exercise interventions to slow cognitive decline in old age, especially in people at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
rml (efe, Nature Medicine)
