A small study involving 12 very fit older adults (aged 50-80; average age 61) found that, after stopping their exercise routines for 10 days, there was a significant decrease in blood flow to several brain regions, including the hippocampus and regions involved in the default mode network (both the hippocampus and the DMN show deterioration early in Alzheimer’s).
Latest Research News
It is now realized that the focus in treating diabetes shouldn’t be so much on controlling blood sugar. New medical guidelines point to the importance of the following interventions (in order of benefit):
- smoking cessation (most important)
- blood pressure control
- metformin drug therapy
- lipid reduction
- glycemic control (least important).
This isn’t to say that blood sugar isn’t important; but the others should be dealt with first.
A British study analyzing data from 7,011 adults who participated in two Health and Lifestyle Surveys, has found that a new method of measuring obesity, A Body Shape Index (ABSI), is a more effective predictor of mortality than Body Mass Index (BMI). You can find an online calculator at http://www-ce.ccny.cuny.edu/nir/sw/absi-calculator.html.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/ccon-nss022414.php
The jugular venous reflux (JVR) occurs when the pressure gradient reverses the direction of blood flow in the veins, causing blood to leak backwards into the brain. A small pilot study has found an association between JVR and white matter changes in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and those with mild cognitive impairment. This suggests that cerebral venous outflow impairment might play a role in the development of white matter changes in those with Alzheimer’s.
Two studies indicate that young people carrying the “Alzheimer’s gene” (ApoE4) do not have the pathological changes found later in life. The first study, involving 1412 adolescents, found no differences in hippocampal volume or asymmetry as a function of gene status. The second study, involving 173 young adults (average age, 28 ± 7.6 years), found no difference in plasma concentrations of amyloid-beta peptides.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-04/ip-neo040614.php
A small study involving 52 people aged 32-72 has found that those whose parents both had Alzheimer's disease showed more severe abnormalities in brain volume and metabolism and 5-10% more amyloid plaques in certain brain regions, compared to those with either a father or mother, or neither parent, with the disease. There were 13 in each group.
Consistent with previous research, those whose mother had Alzheimer's disease showed a greater level of the Alzheimer's disease biomarkers than those whose father had the disease.
A study of 438 first- and second-grade students and their primary caregivers has revealed that parents' math anxiety affects their children's math performance — but (and this is the surprising bit) only when they frequently help them with their math homework.
The study builds on previous research showing that students learn less math when their teachers are anxious about math. This is not particularly surprising, and it wouldn't have been surprising if this study had found that math-anxious parents had math-anxious children. But the story wasn't that simple.
Sleep, as I have said on many occasions, helps your brain consolidate new memories. I have reported before on a number of studies showing how sleep helps the learning of various types of new information. Most of those studies have looked at procedural learning (learning new skills), or verbal learning. A new study adds to these by looking at face-name associations.
A review of 39 studies investigating the effect of exercise on cognition in older adults (50+) confirms that physical exercise does indeed improve cognitive function in the over 50s, regardless of their cognitive status. Aerobic exercise, resistance training, multicomponent training and tai chi, all had significant effects. However, exercise sessions needed to be at least 45 minutes and moderate intensity.
A number of studies have found that physical exercise can help delay the onset of dementia, however the ability of exercise to slow the decline once dementia has set in is a more equivocal question. A large new study answers this question in the negative.