Six minutes of intense exercise each day can delay Alzheimer's disease
Channel: Jagad Meru
Date: 2023-01-18

Six minutes of intense exercise each day can delay Alzheimer's disease

#Medicine
#Alzheimer's disease
#Parkinson's disease
#brain-derived neurotrophic factor
#workout

Neurodegenerative diseases frighten many people, and scientists are constantly looking for effective non-drug means of their prevention. 

One of these remedies may be a short but vigorous physical training every day.

There is a specialized protein in our brain called the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which stimulates and supports the development of neurons. 

It plays a key role in the brain's ability to form new connections and pathways. 

Experiments on animals have shown that the increased content of BDNF in the brain improves memory, learning and cognitive abilities in general.

Not surprisingly, the obvious neuroprotective properties of the protein have attracted the interest of specialists studying the aging process and related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. 

It is known that the production of BDNF increases in response to intermittent fasting and exercise, so researchers from the University of Otago (New Zealand) decided to compare the effectiveness of light and intense training with a 20-hour fast

The experiment involved 12 physically healthy people, six men and six women, aged 18 to 56 years. 

For each trial consisted of three phases: a 20-hour fast, an hour and a half of low-intensity physical training, and six minutes of vigorous exercise on an exercise bike. 

Before each stage, blood samples were taken from the participants to measure the concentration of BDNF in the blood plasma.

The most effective way to increase the concentration of BDNF was short intense training: after a 20-hour fast, there was no visible effect, 

an hour and a half of "lazy" training led to only a slight increase in the concentration of the desired protein, and only six minutes of active physical activity increased the content of BDNF almost five times.

More research will be needed to understand the cause of these differences, 

but scientists suggest that they are associated with the "switching" of our brain to additional energy sources and the load-induced increase in the number of platelets – blood cells containing large amounts of BDNF.

In the future, the researchers plan to study the effects of longer fasting (up to three days), as well as the combined effects of intense training and food restrictions. 

Perhaps by combining intermittent fasting with intense training, it is possible to achieve the highest concentrations of BDNF in the brain.

The study is published in The Journal of Physiology.