Alzheimer’ s Research:
Aerobics Can Protect Brain, Improve Mental Performance
In an article published on oregonlive. com, a study by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System offer strong evidence that regular aerobics can protect the brain— and even improve cognitive performance— in older adults with mild cognitive impairment, a prelude to Alzheimer’ s, an incurable disease that wipes out memory.
In a clinical trial, researchers studied the effect of aerobics training on 33 women and men diagnosed with cognitive impairment. Twenty-three of these research subjects began an intense program of aerobic exercise, spending 45 to 60 minutes on a treadmill or stationary bike four days a week. The remaining 10 spent the same amount of time performing non-aerobic stretching and balance exercises.
The study, funded by the Alzheimer’ s Association and the Department of Veterans Affairs, reveals that after six months of clinical trial, those who had regular aerobic exercise showed significant gains in mental agility, while the non-aerobic group showed continuing decline in tests of thinking speed, fluency with words and ability to multi-task.
Interestingly, for reasons unknown, aerobic training helped women’ s mental agility substantially more than it helped men’ s.“ It might be that this was the perfect dose of exercise for women but not [ for ] men,” says Laura Baker, lead author of the study and research scientist at the Puget Sound Health Care System.
The challenge now, according to Dr. Jeffrey Kaye, director of the Layton Aging and Alzheimer’ s Disease Center at Oregon Health & Science University,“ is to understand, at a scientific level, what elements of activity really do enhance brain function, and what level, what dose of activity is needed.”
Use the clinical findings of this research to help promote your spa ' s fitness aerobics classes. There is a great opportunity to attract this specific market with evidence-based research designed to help them understand the amazing benefits of fitness and aerobics.
“... those who had regular aerobic exercise showed significant gains in mental agility.”
August 2011 ■ PULSE 13