Want to keep Alzheimer’s at arm’s length and stay sharp? Practise resistance training

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

However, do you know that exercising is also the secret to a healthy brain and helps you steer clear of health conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s? As per a recent research, regular strength or resistance training can boost brain health. The study, which was conducted by the Federal University of Sao Paulo and the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil found that resistance training, where muscles are worked against a weight or force, can work wonders for dementia or Alzheimer’s patients.

The study was conducted on a group of mice. Mice with a type of genetic mutation that causes beta-amyloid plaques to form in the brain (as seen in Alzheimer’s patients) were subjected to a four-week resistance training programme involving ladders and weights.

At the end of a month, it was seen that mice who physically exerted themselves daily had a significantly reduced build-up of plaque in their brain as well as lower levels of corticosterone hormones in the plasma, in comparison to peers who did not undergo resistance training. Corticosterone in mice is equal to the hormone cortisol which is produced by the human body when we undergo stress and anxiety.

Cortisol levels have been linked to Alzheimer’s. “We also observed the animals' behavior to assess their anxiety in the open field test and found that resistance exercise reduced hyperlocomotion to similar levels to the controls among mice with the phenotype associated with Alzheimer's," neuroscientist Deidiane Elisa Ribeiro from the University of São Paulo in Brazil, told the magazine Science Alert.

The findings of the study were published in the journal Frontiers In Neuroscience. Aside from keeping your cognitive functions sharp, regular exercise can also yield other health