Just 6 Months of Walking May Boost Aging Brains

Republished from: https://consumer.healthday.com/fitness-information-14/walking-health-news-288/just-6-months-of-walking-may-boost-aging-brains-740826.html?WT.mc_id=enews2019_01_11&utm_source=enews-aff-&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=enews-2019-01-11

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Dec. 20, 2018 (HealthDay News)

Walking and other types of moderate exercise may help turn back the clock for older adults who are losing their mental sharpness, a new clinical trial finds.

The study focused on older adults who had milder problems with memory and thinking skills. The researchers found that six months of moderate exercise -- walking or pedaling a stationary bike -- turned some of those issues around.

Specifically, exercisers saw improvements in their executive function -- the brain's ability to pay attention, regulate behavior, get organized and achieve goals. And those who also made some healthy diet changes, including eating more fruits and vegetables, showed somewhat bigger gains.

The effect was equivalent to shaving about nine years from their brain age, said lead researcher James Blumenthal, a professor at Duke University School of Medicine, in Durham, N.C.

In contrast, those same mental abilities kept declining among study participants who received health education only.

Experts said the findings support the general concept that a healthy lifestyle can help protect the brain as you age.

"And it's never too late to start," said Keith Fargo, director of scientific programs and outreach for the Alzheimer's Association. "The people in this study were older, already had cognitive [mental] impairments and cardiovascular risk factors, and they were sedentary."

Fargo, who was not involved in the research, described the findings as "great news."

He said that's in large part because this was a clinical trial that actually put exercise to the test. Many past studies have found that physically active people tend to be in better mental shape as they age. But those studies don't prove cause and effect, Fargo noted. Clinical trials do.

Blumenthal echoed the "never too late" message, and also said the exercise routine used in the trial was very accessible. People walked or rode a stationary bike three times a week, for 35 minutes with a 10-minute warmup.

"They weren't training for a marathon," he added.

Blumenthal said the same of the diet changes some study participants made. They followed the so-called DASH diet, which is routinely recommended for people with high blood pressure. It is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy unsaturated fats, and low in sodium, sugar, and meat and dairy high in saturated fat.

Fargo agreed that those changes are within reach for most older adults. "Almost everyone can get up and sweat a few times a week," he said. "Almost everyone can eat more fruits and vegetables than they already do."

For the study, Blumenthal's team recruited 160 adults, aged 55 and older, who had complaints about their memory and thinking abilities. Objective tests confirmed that they had signs of impairment.

None had full-blown dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease. But at the outset, the group's performance on tests of executive function was similar to that of people in their early 90s -- even though their real average age was about 65.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: one that exercised; one that followed the DASH diet; one that exercised and made the diet switch; and another that received health education only.

After six months, both exercise groups showed improvements in tests of executive function, while the health-education group continued to decline. People who exercised and followed the DASH diet seemed to fare best -- but the diet alone did not make a statistically significant difference.

Blumenthal stressed that the study group was small, which makes it more difficult to tease out the effects of each intervention. He said larger studies are still needed.

It's also unclear whether exercise and diet can ultimately delay or prevent full-blown dementia in some people.

Why would exercise and a healthy diet help with thinking skills?
It's not clear, Blumenthal said. But in this study, there was a correlation between improvements in physical fitness and people's test performance. Similarly, if their heart disease risk factors improved -- a drop in blood pressure, for example -- their test scores rose, too.

According to Fargo, that's consistent with the theory that a healthier flow of blood and oxygen to the brain may boost older adults' mental acuity.

He noted that the Alzheimer's Association is launching a trial that will test a combination of lifestyle changes -- exercise and diet, plus social engagement and mentally stimulating activities such as puzzles and crosswords.

It will look at whether those measures can protect mental function in older adults at increased risk of decline.

The study was published online Dec. 19 in the journal Neurology.

SOURCES: James Blumenthal, Ph.D., professor, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and psychology and neuroscience, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, N.C.; Keith Fargo, Ph.D., director, scientific programs and outreach, Alzheimer's Association, Chicago; Dec. 19, 2018, Neurology, online

After marijuana edibles helped dying Holocaust survivor battle Alzheimer's, his family's foundation pushes for more research

Republished from: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/marijuana-edibles-helped-dying-holocaust-survivor-battle-alzheimers/story?id=59637115

By FORD VOX Dec 9, 2018, 1:50 PM ET

A Massachusetts family’s experience giving marijuana edibles to their dying patriarch is set to kick off a desperately needed investigation into how cannabis might treat some of the more troubling symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, a condition that affects 5.7 million Americans.

Alexander Spier spent three years during the Holocaust in Auschwitz and other concentration camps as punishment not only for his heritage but also because he had fought against the Nazis with the Dutch Underground. Spier was eventually able to emigrate to the U.S. from Holland in 1945, where he began working as a watchmaker and jeweler before moving into real estate and construction.

Today, Spier’s family runs the multimillion-dollar company that he built, Mayfair Realty & Development Corporation. They’ve also carried on his tradition of philanthropy through the Spier Family Foundation, which has supported a variety of medical research through different hospitals in the past.

Harvard’s McLean Psychiatric Hospital is one of those institutions supported by the Spiers. And now, it’s partnering with the family to research the potential benefits of medical marijuana on Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Spier died of complications related to Alzheimer’s in 2017. His final two years were characterized by rapid decline, which his son, Greg Spier, described as torturous.

“It was the most difficult time of my life, having to see him deteriorate. My father spoke five languages, and he was speaking Dutch and German, reliving the three concentration camps he survived,” Greg Spier said, recalling how his father often pleaded, “Where is my mother?” in German.

Alex’s story is typical for many of the 50 percent of Alzheimer’s patients who develop so-called neuropsychiatric symptoms of the condition, characterized by agitation, anxiety, depression, psychosis, wandering and pacing.

For Alex Spier, the symptoms became too much to continue with assisted living, where he managed to escape twice. But even after his family moved him to a dedicated memory care program in Florida, where he was given supplementary care and a private attendant, his condition progressed.

Doctors resorted to aggressive medications, including a variety of antipsychotic and antiseizure drugs, but the sedation they caused — side effects of their use — only seemed to worsen his agitation and delirium.

In a decision that at first divided the family, Greg Spier and a niece who lives in Colorado decided to try marijuana edibles. The last-ditch effort involved Greg Spier, along with a private assistant, feeding his dad granola bar marijuana edibles up to four times a day during his final three months.

“The only thing that seemed to give him any reprieve was the marijuana,” Greg Spier said, adding that it allowed his dad to sleep.

According to Dr. Brent Forester, chief of the division of geriatric psychiatry at McLean, the science of medical cannabis for dementia is far behind what families like the Spiers are already doing on their own. Alex Spier wasn’t his patient, but Forester was fascinated to learn about the family’s success with edibles last year.

Forester’s own research involves the synthetic THC drug dronabinol, an FDA-approved medicine for chemotherapy-related nausea and AIDS-associated weight loss, which can cost $400 to $1,500 without insurance coverage.

Forester and his colleagues have published promising study results after giving dronabinol to agitated and distressed dementia patients, and are currently recruiting for a larger multicenter trial funded by the National Institute on Aging.

It’s true that in teens and young adults, frequent marijuana use is associated with a lower IQ and an increased risk of psychiatric disorders. In adults who have been using it since adolescence, it has been found to erode memory and visuospatial skills.

But these negative impacts could be limited to young brains that are exposed to marijuana for extended periods, and they might not be true for people who begin in older age. When a team of German and Israeli researchers gave low doses of THC to old mice, for example, learning and memory improved to a level similar to young mice.

When these scientists examined the brain tissue, they found that the mice given the THC had more complex hippocampal connections. By contrast, THC worsened brain function in young mice.

More promising for Alzheimer’s disease, animal research has also shown that THC may increase the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, just like the FDA-approved dementia drug Aricept. THC also appears to slow the accumulation of amyloid beta plaques, the hallmark characteristic of Alzheimer’s.

Forester and his colleagues theorize that these protective effects — which result from the use of cannabinoid drugs — might reduce the risk of the abnormal behaviors associated with dementia. However, only time and research will tell.

The Spier Family Foundation is eager to support this work and is giving private dollars to fund it. Federal funding is difficult to obtain with marijuana still being classified as a schedule I controlled substance, defined as “having no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

There are currently no FDA-approved drugs that treat the behavioral symptoms of dementia, which can become the most distressing aspect of the condition. Current drugs that are given to Alzheimer’s patients, such as antipsychotics and benzodiazepines, can even make their symptoms worse due to side effects, Forester said.

“We really need to open up opportunities to study medical marijuana for this particular indication. I think there’s enough evidence from the synthetic THC as well as anecdotal reports that it’s certainly worth studying,” Forester said.

The Spier Family Foundation’s willingness to fund this work is extraordinarily important, Forester said, adding that he was hopeful the medical marijuana industry will see the value in supporting such research as well.

Dr. Ford Vox practices rehabilitation medicine at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta and contributes analysis to the ABC News Medical Unit.