Increasing the number of daily walks can slow cognitive decline in older adults who already have biological signs of early Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new observational study.
Presence of beta amyloid and tau protein These are the hallmark signs of Alzheimer’s. Amyloid can begin to build up in the spaces between neurons as early as your 30s, potentially affecting communication between brain cells. As amyloid deposits increase, this can lead to the rapid spread of: abnormal tau proteinIt forms tangles inside brain cells, killing them.
“Physical activity may help slow the buildup of tau, the protein most closely associated with memory loss, and may help delay cognitive decline in patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease,” said Wai-Ying Wendy Yau, MD, a neurologist and memory disorders physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Cognitive decline was delayed by an average of three years for people who walked 3,000 to 5,000 steps a day, and by seven years for those who walked 5,000 to 7,500 steps a day, Yau said in an email.
Although the study is informative, relying on a certain number of steps per day to prevent Alzheimer’s disease is too simplistic, said neurologist Richard Isaacson, MD, lead researcher at the Florida Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases. He did not participate in the study.
“I’m very cautious about eye-popping numbers like walking 5,000 or 7,000 steps,” said Isaacson, who conducts research on cognitive enhancement in people genetically at risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
“If you have excess body fat, if you have pre-diabetes, if you have high blood pressure, just walking a certain number of steps is not enough,” he said. “Everyone needs their own individualized plan.”
Although the study was small, with 296 people aged 50 to 90, the researchers used objective measures to increase the reliability of the 14-year study. Posted on Monday It was published in the journal Nature Medicine.
“The strength of this study is the combination of cognitive assessments and baseline step counts with a series of highly specialized scans measuring amyloid and tau deposition in the brain. This is unique,” Masud Husain, professor of neurology and cognitive neuroscience at the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Medical Sciences, said in a statement. He did not participate in the study.
Step count was measured with a pedometer. Participants underwent cognitive testing annually for an average of 9 years. and everyone pet (or positron emission tomography) At the beginning of the study, you will be scanned to measure levels of amyloid and tau. A small group received follow-up PET scans at the end of the study.
In people who walked up to 7,500 steps a day, tau accumulation slowed by three to seven years, while those who led a sedentary lifestyle experienced much faster tau protein accumulation and a faster decline in cognitive and daily functioning.
An unusual finding was the lack of relationship between physical activity and beta-amyloid reduction that preceded tau.
“Instead, for a given amount of increased amyloid burden, higher step counts were associated with slower tau accumulation, which largely explained the relationship with slower cognitive decline,” said Yau, who is also an instructor at Harvard Medical School.
Because the study was only observational, it cannot show direct cause and effect, Yau said. But these studies reinforce existing knowledge that what’s good for your heart is also good for your brain, including walking, stress reduction, quality sleep and a plant-based diet, experts say.
“We’ve known for a long time that mice that exercise on small wheels have about 50 percent less amyloid in their brains,” Isaacson said. “More studies in people are needed, but we are confident that regular exercise reduces amyloid buildup and improves cognition.”
