Dementia is an overall term for a set of symptoms that are caused by disorders affecting the brain. A person with dementia may also experience changes in mood or behaviour. You may want to get a move on as a recent study suggests that people who take up running in their teens are less likely to develop dementia later in life. Young rats with access to a running wheel show improved memory later in life and increased activity of neurons generated in adulthood, found a study. The results raise the possibility that exercise early in life may help to protect against age-related cognitive decline. Martin Wojtowicz and colleagues found that six-weeks of voluntary running, beginning at one month of age in rats, was sufficient to induce a long-term effect on learning and memory of a fear response that depends on newly generated neurons in the hippocampus in adulthood.
‘Dementia is progressive, which means the symptoms will gradually get worse as more brain cells become damaged and eventually die.’
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They also found that the activity of the adult-born neurons was enhanced compared to those acquired during development and to those of rats housed in a standard cage without a running wheel. The findings are consistent with the idea of cognitive reserve, whereby the brain draws on enriching experiences from youth to compensate for functional declines as a result of age or disease. Early life interventions that increase physical activity may therefore help to build up this reserve, potentially delaying the onset of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. The study is published in the journal eNeuro.
Source-ANI