A sobering new report from the Alzheimer's Association reveals that roughly 7.2 million Americans age 65 and older are now living with Alzheimer's dementia—meaning 1 in 9 people in this age group are suffering from the cognitive disease. And as the Baby Boomer generation continues to age, these numbers are expected to explode in the next few decades.
However, an increased awareness of these statistics has led more people to seek information and educate themselves on the disease. In fact, a separate report from the Alzheimer's Association found that 91 percent of Americans age 45 and older would voluntarily undergo a blood biomarker test to detect Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms appear. And while 94 percent of people would consider taking medications to treat symptoms, 90 percent would also want to learn about lifestyle changes they could make.
Now, a new study (unrelated to the Association's reports) suggests that a simple lifestyle habit implemented between ages 45 and 65 could slash Alzheimer's risk.
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13% of Alzheimer's disease cases worldwide can be attributed to physical inactivity.
It's estimated that 13 percent of Alzheimer's disease cases worldwide can be attributed to physical inactivity.
To this point, research published in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Diseasefound that physical inactivity was the biggest modifiable risk factor for dementia in those aged 45 and older.
But what constitutes "physical activity" exactly?
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults engage in 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity per week. Additionally, they recommend completing at least two days of muscle-strengthening activities.
A new study looked at the connection between physical activity and Alzheimer's.
A new study published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia analyzed the health data of 337 Spanish participants between the ages of 45 and 65 with no cognitive impairment but with a family history of Alzheimer's disease.
"We used physical activity questionnaires to assess changes in activity over a four-year period and neuroimaging tests to analyse the effects of exercise on brain structure and function," explained first study author Müge Akinci, doctoral researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), via a press release.
The researchers then divided participants into three categories: adherent (meeting WHO recommendations), non-adherent (doing less than the recommended amount of physical activity), and sedentary (doing zero minutes of physical activity per week).
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How can a lack of exercise lead to Alzheimer's?
According to the press release, "Beta-amyloid (Aβ) is a protein that can impair neural communication when it accumulates in the brain and is considered the first pathological event in Alzheimer's disease."
The researchers observed that participants in the adherent group had less beta-amyloid accumulation than those in the other groups. Furthermore, they found that the more exercise someone did, the greater the reduction they had in beta-amyloid accumulation.
Additionally, non-sedentary participants had thicker cortices in the brain regions associated with Alzheimer's disease, which is important because "cortical thickness in the medial temporal area is crucial for memory, so its thinning or atrophy (loss of volume) is an early sign of neurodegeneration," explains the press release.
"Even those who did less physical activity than recommended had greater cortical thickness than sedentary people, suggesting that any amount of exercise, no matter how minimal, has health benefits," Akinci pointed out.
"These findings reinforce the importance of promoting physical activity in middle age as a public health strategy for Alzheimer's prevention," concluded Eider Arenaza-Urquijo, ISGlobal researcher and lead investigator of the study. "Interventions aimed at promoting increased physical activity could be key to reducing the incidence of the disease in the future."
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The takeaway:
According to new research, increasing physical activity between the ages of 45 and 65 can reduce one's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. The main highlights from the study are:
- Increasing physical activity can lead to a lower accumulation in the brain of beta-amyloid (Aβ), a protein associated with Alzheimer's
- Remaining sedentary is attributed to lower cortical thickness in the brain areas associated with Alzheimer's
- Adhering to the WHO-recommended physical activity levels may enhance brain health
