Exercising can protect the brain from Alzheimer disease
Physical activity is associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer disease, says a panel of researchers led by UBC’s Okanagan campus. The researchers also confirmed that regular physical activity may improve the performance of daily activities for people afflicted with Alzheimer disease.
The study’s first author, Kathleen Martin Ginis, PhD, professor in UBC Okanagan’s School of Health and Exercise Sciences, and her cohort reviewed data from more than 150 research articles about the impact of physical activity on people with Alzheimer disease. Some of the work explored how physical activity improves the patient’s quality of life and some examined the risk of developing Alzheimer disease based on the amount of activity in which an individual participated.
The panel concluded that regular physical activity improves activities of daily living and mobility in older adults with Alzheimer disease and may improve general cognition and balance. They also established that older adults not diagnosed with Alzheimer disease, who are physically active, were significantly less likely to develop the disease compared to people who were inactive.
The study is published in BMC Public Health (https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-017-4090-5).