A study has found that regular resistance exercise can prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. In an experiment with transgenic mice, it was found that resistance training decreased beta-amyloid plaque formation and normalized levels of corticosterone, the stress hormone linked to Alzheimer’s. Researchers believe that resistance training’s anti-inflammatory effects could be a primary reason for its effectiveness in staving off Alzheimer’s. The study concluded that resistance exercise could be an affordable, accessible therapy for Alzheimer’s patients.
Experiments involving mice showed four weeks of training with weights to be sufficient to reverse behavioral and physical alterations characteristic of the disease.
Regular physical exercise, such as resistance training, can prevent To observe the neuroprotective effects of this practice, researchers in UNIFESP’s Departments of Physiology and Psychobiology, and the Department of Biochemistry at USP’s Institute of Chemistry (IQ-USP), conducted experiments involving transgenic mice with a mutation responsible for a buildup of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain. The protein accumulates in the central nervous system, impairs synaptic connections, and damages neurons, all of which are features of Alzheimer’s disease.
During the study, which was funded by FAPESP, the mice were trained to climb a 110 cm ladder with a slope of 80° and 2 cm between rungs. Loads were attached to their tails corresponding to 75%, 90%, and 100% of their body weight. The experiment mimicked certain kinds of resistance training undertaken by humans in fitness centers.
At the end of a four-week period of training, blood samples were taken to measure
“Resistance exercise is increasingly proving an effective strategy to avoid the appearance of symptoms of sporadic Alzheimer’s [ not directly caused by a single inherited genetic mutation ], which is multifactorial and may be associated with aging, or to delay their emergence in familial Alzheimer’s. The main possible reason for this effectiveness is the anti-inflammatory action of resistance exercise,” said Beatriz Monteiro Longo, last author of the article and a professor of neurophysiology at UNIFESP.
Review of the literature
The animal model study was based on a review of the literature published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, where the same group at UNIFESP compiled clinical evidence that the benefits of resistance exercise include positive effects on cognitive dysfunction, memory deficit, and behavioral issues in Alzheimer’s patients, concluding that it can be an affordable alternative or adjuvant therapy.
Researchers from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) in Brazil also took part in the study.
“Alzheimer’s doesn’t only affect the patient. The entire family is affected, especially in low-income households,” said Caroline Vieira Azevedo, first author of the review article and a graduate student at UNIFESP. “Both articles offer information that can be used to stimulate the creation of public policies. Imagine the cost savings if the appearance of symptoms in older patients is deferred by ten years.”
Reference: “Neuroprotective effects of resistance physical exercise on the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease” by Henrique Correia Campos, Deidiane Elisa Ribeiro, Debora Hashiguchi, Talita Glaser, Milena da Silva Milanis, Christiane Gimenes, Deborah Suchecki, Ricardo Mario Arida, Henning Ulrich and Beatriz Monteiro Longo, 6 April 2023, Frontiers in Neuroscience.
DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1132825