KU Research Adds To Evidence That Exercise Can Help Damaged Brains

(Souce: http://www.kansascity.com/105/v-print/story/786597.html )

 

The Researchers at the University of Kansas School of Medicine really put Paul Hilpman through his paces.

 

After a series of dexterity tests, they harnessed the 76-year-old man to wires and a breathing tube and put him on a treadmill.

 

"Then the sadistic doctor cranks up the slope until they think I'll collapse," Hilpman quipped.

 

All that sweating and panting by Hilpman and about 160 other elderly volunteers at KU has led to a hopeful discovery.

 

Exercising and staying physically fit, the researchers say, may slow the relentless, mind-robbing progress of Alzheimer's disease.

 

"This offers hope for all of us," said KU Neurologist Jeffrey Burns. "Exercise is cheap. Everybody can do it. If it does impact Alzheimer's disease, we should be treating people with exercise."

 

The implications of any intervention that can delay the onset of Alzheimer's are enormous.

 

About 5.2 million Americans now live with Alzheimer's. By 2050, that number could swell to 11 million to 16 million.

 

But if ways can be found to postpone Alzheimer's by as little as two years, nearly 2 million cases of the disease could be avoided.

 

Burns and his colleagues have been doing brain scans and treadmill tests on mentally healthy older people such as Hilpman and comparing them with those of others who are in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

 

The doctors have found that brain shrinkage, an inevitable consequence of Alzheimer's, was less pronounced in people who had the disease and were physically fit.

 

By doing scans that delve into the structures of the brain, the KU Researchers pinpointed that shrinkage to an area called the hippocampus, which is key to processing new memories.

 

The hippocampus is one of the first parts of the brain to atrophy as Alzheimer's develops. This finding suggests that exercise might slow the disease at its earliest stages.

 

"Our results are really significant," said Robyn Honea, a Nuroscientist at KU who analyzed the brain scans. The brain shrinkage "is not just a random effect. It's very relevant to the disease."

 

The KU Researchers say they are the first to demonstrate how physical fitness may affect the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Their work adds to growing evidence that physical activity can make beneficial changes to damaged brains.

 

The Journal of the American Medical Association last week published a study that showed older adults at risk of Alzheimer's did better on tests of memory and language if they regularly spent about 2 1/2 hours a week walking and doing other exercise.

 

The benefits were modest, but they were apparent after six months of exercise, the Australian Researchers said. The results persisted for at least another 12 months.

 

Another new study in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association found that people who started regular workouts on a treadmill, even years after suffering a stroke, showed increased activity in the undamaged parts of their brains that controlled walking.

 

The Researchers suggest that the exercise helped rewire the brain so new areas could take on the jobs of areas damaged by stroke.

 

"Many stroke survivors believe there's nothing to be gained from further rehabilitation, but our results suggest that health and functional benefits from walking on a treadmill can occur even decades out from stroke," said Richard Macko of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

 

There has been other tantalizing evidence that physical activity can also change the brains of healthy people, rRsearchers have found.

 

For example, in young and old alike, the visual and memory areas of the brain expand when those people are trained to juggle.

 

Scientists have a number of ideas for why physical activity changes the brain.

 

Exercise increases blood flow to the brain. That may encourage new blood vessels to form and boost the brain's blood supply.

 

And at least in animals, exercise increases the production of proteins called growth factors that stimulate the growth of nerve cells.

 

Studies already have shown that running on a treadmill promotes the growth of nerve cells in the hippocampi of rats and mice.

 

"They show a cascade of changes, more oxygen to the brain that sets off growth factors released from the cells that stimulate more neurons and better connections" among them, Honea said.

 

Burns says he wants to expand his research to determine whether someone with Alzheimer's can actually delay the progression of the disease by starting to exercise.

 

Burns and KU Neurologist Heather Anderson already supervise a pilot program for people with early Alzheimer's disease to show that regular exercise routines are feasible. If the program gets funding, Burns and Anderson plan to partner with YMCAs across the Kansas City area for a larger study.

 

Said Burns: "We want to know what kind of exercise is best and how intense and how long, and do they improve the disease process, do they slow the changes in the brain?"

 

Burns advises older people who want to start vigorous exercise to see their doctors first and work out a plan.

 

Hilpman, a Professor Emeritus of Geology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, stays fit by doing consulting work in geology.

 

"This business of going up a hill on the treadmill is nothing," he said. "I do it all the time."

 

Hilpman said that taking part in the KU study was his way of contributing to medical knowledge about Alzheimer's. He has seen couples struggle with the disease.

 

"The saddest thing is when a spouse is left to deal with it," Hilpman said. "They're trying to hang on to some kind of reality, the things they did together. I can see how it takes a toll."