Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/602310
2. The second study focused on how exercise impacts tau tangles — brain lesions that are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's. The brain lesions (tau tangles) form when the protein tau collapses into twisted strands, which ends up killing brain cells. Here, sedentary adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment were randomly divided into one of two groups. Four times a week, the first group did supervised aerobic workouts, while the other did stretching exercises. After six months, the aerobic exercise group had statistically significant reductions in tau levels compared with those who only did stretching. They also experienced improved attention, planning, and executive function, courtesy of improved blood flow in brain regions associated with memory and processing. According to co-author Laura Baker: "These findings are important because they strongly suggest a potent lifestyle intervention such as aerobic exercise can impact Alzheimer's-related changes in the brain. No currently approved medication can rival these effects." 3. In the third study, patients with mild vascular cognitive impairment (the second leading cause of dementia) who did supervised aerobic exercise for six months significantly improved their cognitive function compared to patients who received the standard care. Lead researcher Teresa Liu-Ambrose noted that: "[T]he fact that aerobic exercise can improve cognitive function in VCI means that people with the condition have hope there may soon be a proven tool they can use to prolong their independence and improve their quality of life." It's also been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized, thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer's. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. Research has shown that people with Alzheimer's have less PGC-1alpha in their brains and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer's. Exercise also leads to hippocampus growth and memory improvement. On the whole, it seems quite clear that exercise is an important part of any Alzheimer's prevention plan. Sleep Quality and Quantity Also Plays a Role A number of studies have linked poor sleep or lack of sleep to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. One reason for this is because your brain's waste removal system only operates during deep sleep. This waste- removal system has been dubbed the glymphatic system. By pumping cerebral spinal fluid through your brain's tissues, the glymphatic system flushes the waste (including the harmful proteins amyloid-beta) from your brain back into your body's circulatory system, from where it is then eliminated. However, in order for it to do this work effectively, you have to enter deep sleep for a long enough time. During sleep, the glymphatic system becomes 10 times more active than during wakefulness. Your brain cells also shrink by about 60 percent, allowing for greater efficiency of waste removal. During the day, the constant brain activity causes your brain cells to swell in size until they take up just over 85 percent of your brain's volume, thereby disallowing effective waste removal. It's not so surprising then that poor sleep appears to drive the buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain. In short, people who sleep poorly tend to have higher amounts of amyloid plaques in their brain, which in turn are associated with worse performance on memory tests. As such, poor sleep may actually be an early indicator sign of amyloid buildup, which could be causing very subtle brain changes long before disease develops. So just how much sleep do you need for optimal health? Based on a review of 300 studies assessing sleep and health outcomes, the latest sleep guidelines state that adults aged 18 to 64 need 7 to 9 hours, and seniors over the age of 65 need 7 to 8 hours each night. School-age children need 10 to 13 hours, and teens, who tend to be among the most sleep deprived, need 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night. Considering the ramifications of sleeping poorly over decades, it would be wise to address your children's sleeping habits early on, and to teach them the value of getting enough quality sleep on a regular and consistent basis. Page 50 | Abby's Magazine - www.AbbysHealthAndNutrition.com