Why You Should Do Fitness Exercises to Fight Alzheimer's?
As a result of the researches made by scientists in the USA on the relationship between brain and fitness, it has been revealed that Alzheimer’s patients in the early stages of fitness also benefit.
In a study conducted on patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, it was found that patients whose bodies were more fit had less brain damage.
In healthy people, fitness and exercise are known to slow progressive age-related changes in the brain. Recent findings suggest that patients with early Alzheimer’s disease may also benefit from exercise.
Alzheimer’s Association Medical and Scientific Consultant Dr. “If you have Alzheimer’s, you are not too late to get fit,” says Sam Gandy.
University of Kansas Medical Center researchers investigated the relationship between fitness and brain in 56 healthy adults over 60 and 60 beginning Alzheimer’s patients.
The researchers applied the cardiovascular fitness test, based on treadmill tests that measure oxygen consumption. They measured the volume of the brain by focusing especially on the memory part of the brain using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) method.
The results of the research were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Chicago. In Alzheimer’s, the hippocampus region of the brain is the first to be damaged, and physically fit patients among the patients with the onset of Alzheimer’s have more brain volume in the hippocampus region of the brain, which is important for memory than those who are not.
This study is the first to find out exactly where the damage occurs in the brain, Robyn Honea. “It is possible to detect changes due to fitness in the hippocampus, which is the key area of memory loss due to Alzheimer’s.”
In another study, Australian researchers found that memory loss slowed down and improved quality of life with a 12-month home exercise program guided by their caregivers.
