Exercise is a vital element of a healthful lifestyle; it helps maintain heart health, improve mood, and fight weight gain. New research also suggests that it can protect a person’s cognitive skills, and a new study uncovers fresh information as to how this can happen.According to a study covered on Medical News Today last year, engaging in regular, leisurely exercise can help keep the body young and healthy.
The same appears to be true for the relationship between exercise and the mind; only 10 minutes of physical activity may boost cognitive function in the short-term.
Meanwhile, exercising regularly for 6 months could actually reverse the symptoms of mild cognitive impairment.Starting from such evidence, which suggests that exercise has a protective and even healing effect on brain functioning, a team of researchers from numerous international academic institutions has recently investigated some of the biological mechanisms that underlie this relationship.The researchers came from institutions including the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University in New York City, NY. They conducted the new research — the findings of which appear in the journal Nature Medicine — in a mouse model, and it suggests that a protein and hormone released during exercise might be the main factor behind slowing cognitive impairment linked to conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.In the new study paper — the first author of which is Mychael Lourenco, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro — the scientists explain that in Alzheimer’s disease, as well as in other neurodegenerative conditions, hormonal signals are impaired. “Failure of hormone-initiated signaling pathways,” the authors explain, “has been associated with brain disorders, including [Alzheimer’s disease].”This has led investigators to target such signaling pathways in an effort to find better treatments and preventive approaches for cognitive impairment. Lourenco and team started by looking at hormonal levels in the hippocampus and cerebral spinal fluid of people with Alzheimer’s. Then, they repeated the investigation in a mouse model of the condition. They found that in Alzheimer’s, the levels of a protein and hormone called irisin, as well as those of its precursor — fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5 (FNDC5) — are significantly reduced in both the hippocampus and the cerebrospinal fluid.The researchers explain that irisin is a myokine, a messenger protein released by muscle cells in response to the contractions that occur during physical activity.
Potential for ‘an attractive novel therapy’
Mice that the researchers engineered to express lower-than-normal levels of irisin in the brain had trouble with short-term memory and less of an ability to strengthen synapses. These are the links between neurons that support information flow and memory recall in the brain.
