Regular resistance training has been shown to reduce beta-amyloid plaque formation and normalize levels of corticosterone, the stress hormone linked to Alzheimer's, according to researchers. Resistance training may be a feasible, affordable and accessible therapy for Alzheimer's patients.
Four weeks of weight training per week was sufficient to reverse behavioral and physical changes characteristic of the disease, according to mice's experiments.
Regular physical activity, such as resistance training, may reduce symptoms or at least delay the appearance of symptoms, and can be used as a simple and inexpensive therapy for Alzheimer's patients.
Although older people and dementia patients may not be able to do long daily runs or do other high-intensity aerobic training, they are the focus of most scientific studies on Alzheimer's. Resistance exercise is considered to be the finest strategy to strengthen muscles, strengthen bones, and maintain overall body composition, functional capacity, and balance.
Researchers at UNIFESP's Departments of Physiology and Psychobiology and the Department of Biochemistry at USP's Institute of Chemistry (IQ-USP) performed research on transgenic mice with a mutation responsible for a buildup of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain, all of which are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.
The mice were trained to climb a 110 cm ladder with a 80° slope and 2 cm between rungs, using loads that were equivalent to 75%, 90%, and 100% of their body weight. In reality, it was different from human resistance training in fitness centers.
Blood samples from mice treated for Alzheimer's disease were taken at the conclusion of a four-week training session. Corticosterone, the hormone responsible for increasing risk of Alzheimer's, was normal (equivalent to those found in the control group containing animals without the mutation), and analysis of their brain tissue revealed a decrease in beta-amyloid plaque formation.
"This paper demonstrates that physical activity can reverse neuropathological changes that may lead to clinical symptoms of the disease," according to Henrique Correia Campos, the first author of the study.
„We also assessed the animals' behavior in an open field experiment [that measures avoidance of the most stress-inducing area in a box] and found that resistance exercise reduced hyperlocomotion to similar levels as control in mice with the phenotype associated with Alzheimer's,” said Deidiane Elisa Ribeiro, a researcher at IQ-USP's Neuroscience Laboratory. Alzheimer's and other dementia diagnoses are often early symptoms.
"Resistance training is becoming a popular strategy to avert the appearance of sporadic Alzheimer's [not directly caused by a single inherited genetic mutation], which may be related to aging, or to delaying the development of familial Alzheimer's," according to Beatriz Monteiro Longo, the last author of the study.
The animal model was based on a review of the literature published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, where the same team at UNIFESP collected clinical data that resistance exercise has beneficial effects on cognitive functioning, memory deficit, and behavioral difficulties in Alzheimer's patients, demonstrating that it is an inexpensive alternative therapy.
Participants included researchers from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) in Brazil.
Caroline Vieira Azevedo, the first author of the review article and a graduate student at UNIFESP, believes Alzheimer's disease does not only affect the patient. It affects the whole family, especially in low-income households. "Both articles provide evidence that public policy can be influenced by ten years."
Henrique Correia Campos, Deidiane Elisa Ribeiro, Talita Glaser, Milena da Silva Milanis, Ricardo Mario Arida, Henning Ulrich, and Beatriz Monteiro Longo, Frontiers in Neuroscience, 6 April 2023 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1132825