Mental activity protects against Alzheimer’s

Tags: Alzheimer's disease, Alzheimer's treatments —

If you have cultivated your mind throughout life, and is still doing, know that will be rewarded. Data from a new study in brain imaging studies show that cognitive activities (reading, writing …) can delay the onset or even prevent Alzheimer’s disease .

Susan Landau, University of California (Berkeley, USA), is the author of the new research that has seen the light in the latest Archives of Neurology .

“Our work shows that engaging in activities requiring cognitive activity is associated with a lower risk of accumulating in the brain beta-amyloid protein “, the main component of the plates that make up Alzheimer ELMUNDO.es Landau says.

In his words, his team has managed to demonstrate a direct relationship between a life-habit of regularly cognitive activity and the accumulation of these harmful plaques in the brain. And they have achieved thanks to advances in imaging techniques.

For nearly a decade, the [11C] PiB, a radiopharmaceutical used in PET imaging test (Positron Emission Tomography) are analyzed extensively in various studies due to its diagnostic accuracy for detecting the characteristic plaques Alhzeimer’s disease . In fact, as the researchers explain in the medical journal, its development has made ​​it possible to ‘see’ the protein beta-amyloid and its accumulation in the brain.

Based on this achievement, the Landau team conducted a trial of 65 volunteers whose average age was about 76 years, 10 patients with AD (74 years on average) and 11 healthy young (24 years), they did a control group.

All subjects underwent a series of questionnaires on cognitive activities (reading, writing or playing games) and physical activity (walks, cycling …) throughout his life (at 6, 12 18 & 40 years).

In addition, all neuropsychological tests conducted assessed memory, and finally each of the participants were subjected to a PET radiopharmaceutical with [11C] PiB to check the status of their brains.

The test results showed that participation in cognitively stimulating activities was associated with a lower accumulation of beta-amyloid protein.

Moreover, according to the researchers in the medical journal, this relationship was not affected by variables such as age, years of education, gender or memory capacity.

In fact, according to their data, “older people with higher cognitive activity of the protein levels were similar to the youth of the study, while the brain scans of those with lower mental activity were comparable to those of Alzheimer’s patients.”

“This suggests that people who work the hardest your mind may reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s by preventing the accumulation of beta-amyloid in their brains, “says Landau.

Although they have not been able to determine the mechanisms that explain this relationship, the scientists suggest that the key might be that the brains ‘active’ act in a much more effective . “People who remains active throughout his life would neural processes much more efficient, leading to a lower accumulation of amyloid plaque,” he says.

In their work, researchers remember, however, that “it is unlikely that our results reflect a single cause of Alzheimer’s, as it is a complex disease with many potential pathogenic processes involved.”

“Carrying out activities of cognitive stimulation is probably related to participation in a variety of lifestyle practices that have been associated in other studies with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s, “they insist.

Therefore, for scientific Landau and his team is “important to conduct more research in this field.”