Study Reveals How Lifelong Exercise Could Protect Against Dementia
A team at University College London (UCL) has found a link between regular physical activity throughout life and changes in the brain which could help protect people from developing dementia.
Understanding more about how exercise physically changes the brain could lead to new interventions that could stop it from happening in the first place.
The results are from Insight46, a study funded by Alzheimer’s Research UK and the Medical Research Council (MRC) which analyses health data collected from a unique group of volunteers from England, Scotland and Wales, born in the same week of 1946. Researchers have monitored the participants’ health throughout their lives as part of a larger, ongoing health study. Insight46 wants to see how the participants’ health across their lifetime is linked to their memory, thinking and physical brain changes in later life. The study, which began in 2015, has helped shape our understanding of how factors like heart health, education and head injury can affect the brain in old age.
Dr Sarah-Naomi James, based at the UCL Dementia Research Centre and MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL, leads on one arm of Insight46. Her team are exploring how being active could help a person become more ‘cognitively resilient’, or less likely to develop dementia. Previous studies have linked low physical activity to a higher dementia risk, but Dr James’ research begins to shed light on why this is the case.
Dr James’ team collected information on how active people were in their leisure time across 30 years, spanning before and after they turned 50. They were interested in whether people said they did activities like sports, walking, or any other physical exercise for leisure, once a month or more.
The team then analysed brain scans taken when the participants were 70 years old, to see how physical changes in the brain were linked to their exercise habits throughout life.
Insight46 participants who reported regular exercise during leisure time before they were 50 years old tended to have a larger hippocampus, the part of the brain mainly responsible for memory. This area is often the first brain region affected in Alzheimer’s disease. Dr James’ team think that this could protect against memory loss, a symptom of dementia.
People who exercised throughout life were also less likely to experience cognitive decline, even if they had markers often seen in Alzheimer’s, such as build-up of the protein amyloid in the brain or brain shrinkage. Being active also appeared to help those with early Alzheimer’s disease markers to maintain and buffer their cognitive function, and this was particularly the case for women.
Dr James says: “Exercise is essential for keeping our brains healthy. But we are still building a picture around what physical changes happen in the brain to protect it against dementia.
“Insight46 has given us valuable clues to what changes are happening in the brain, opening new exciting research avenues.
“More work will be crucial to fully understand how exercise, and taking part in leisure activities throughout our lives, could be a powerful tool to protect people against dementia for as long as possible.”
