Cardiorespiratory exercise — walking briskly, running, biking and just about any other exercise that gets your heart pumping — is good for your body, but can it also slow cognitive changes in your brain?
A study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases provides new evidence of an association between cardiorespiratory fitness and brain health, particularly in gray matter and total brain volume — regions of the brain involved with cognitive decline and aging.
Brain tissue is made up of gray matter, or cell bodies, and filaments, called white matter, that extend from the cells. The volume of gray matter appears to correlate with various skills and cognitive abilities. The researchers found that increases in peak oxygen uptake were strongly associated with increased gray matter volume.
The study involved 2,013 adults from two independent cohorts in northeastern Germany.
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Cold weather may encourage some people to stay indoors more but just two weeks of reduced physical activity causes older people to lose significant amounts of muscle, prompting academics to urge them to keep up their step count throughout the winter.
As the temperature drops during winter months, new research by the University of Liverpool has revealed that two weeks of reduced physical activity causes people to gain fat within the muscle tissue which results in a major loss in muscle strength.
The study, presented at The Physiological Society’s Future Physiology 2019 conference, also revealed a decline in bone mineral density. These changes can result in a reduced ability to perform daily activities and can lead to chronic health conditions.
Juliette Norman, one of the authors of the research said:”If the gym is hard to get to, people should be encouraged to just meet 10,000 steps as even this can guard against reductions in muscle and bone health, as well as maintaining healthy levels of body fat.”
The study, funded by the Centre of Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA), involved (26 young adults and 21 older people). They were asked to do the same amount of physical activity over a four-day period with each participant doing over 10,000 steps per day. This was then followed by a two-week period of inactivity involving all participants completing only 1,500 steps per day.
To read the full story visit the Homecare.co.uk website.
Alzheimer’s Research UK has launched a global initiative to revolutionise the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease.
The project will be trialled by a million people in the UK and includes wearing a smartwatch style device to detect early signs of dementia by using artificial intelligence to monitor more than 30 indicators, such as speech, gait, fine motor skills and sleep.
President of Alzheimer’s Research UK, David Cameron said: “I strongly believe we are on the cusp of a revolution in how we detect the brain diseases that cause dementia and radically improve the lives of the millions on families facing these heart-breaking diseases.
“Early and accurate diagnosis will give future treatments the head-start they need to succeed. Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases (EDoN) brings together those at the forefront of this early diagnosis movement”.
For more information go to the homecare.co.uk website
