HealthAug15

one group with the gene, and one
without. The other two groups were
regular exercisers: one group with the
gene, and one without. At the beginning,
and then 18 months later at the end, the
scientists did brain scans to specifically
observe the hippocampal region. The
good news was that physically active
volunteers with the gene had “almost
no shrinkage of their hippocampus.” In
contrast, a 3 percent shrinkage was noted
in the group with the gene that did not
regularly exercise. For groups without
the gene, exercise or lack thereof
produced little change.
Stephen M. Rao, a professor at the
Schey Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging
at the Cleveland Clinic, oversaw the
study and said the results showed that
physically active volunteers at high risk
for the disease had brains that looked
“just like the brains of people at much
lower risk for the disease.” He called
exercise “protective,” and although
more research is needed to understand
the “whys and hows,” it seems that
exercising even a few times a week
can help shore up our ability to retain
memories, while providing the side
benefits of working to reduce other risk
factors including high blood pressure,
diabetes and high cholesterol.
There are free resources available to
offer ideas about how to incorporate
physical activity into a mature lifestyle,
or help to slow the effects of the
disease for someone with Alzheimer’s.
It is a disease that leaves both its
victims and its caregivers in a state of
helplessness as it slowly progresses,
and this is one way sufferers maybe
able to gain a measure of agency in
the face of debilitation.
To learn more about how to get
started on an exercise routine visit
go4life.nia.nih.gov/get-started or
go4life.nia.nih.gov/tip-sheets/
helping-people-alzheimers-diseasestay-physically-active.
August 2015
healthsourcemag.com—25