Walking a mile a day could help stave off Alzheimer’s disease, experts say.
And people who walk at least six to nine miles a week cut their risk of developing memory problems by half.
University of Pittsburgh researchers found regular walking may stop the brain from shrinking in later life.
Author professor Kirk Erickson said: “Our results should encourage welldesigned trials of physical exercise in older adults as a promising approach for preventing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.”
Brain scans revealed that older people walking between six and nine miles a week appeared to have more brain tissue in key areas.
The Pittsburgh University study of 299 people suggested they had less “brain shrinkage”, which is linked to memory problems.
The research was reported in the journal Neurology.
Walking a mile a day could help stave off Alzheimer's
The volunteers, who had an average age of 78, were checked for signs of “cognitive impairment” or even dementia.
The Pittsburgh team also had access to brain scan results from four years previously which measured the amount of “grey matter” in their brains.
This is found at various parts of the brain and is known to diminish in many people as they get older.
Each of them had been quizzed in their 60s about the number of city blocks they walked each week as part of their normal routine.
The results showed that those who walked at least 72 blocks – six to nine miles – a week had a greater volume of grey matter.
Four years after the scans, 40% of the group had measurable cognitive impairment or even dementia.
Those who walked the most were half as likely to have these problems compared with those who walked the least.
Dr Kirk Erickson, who led the study, said: “If regular exercise in midlife could improve brain health and improve thinking and memory in later life, it would be one more reason to make regular exercise in people of all ages a public health imperative.”
Susanne Sorensen, from the Alzheimer’s Society, said that the study was further evidence that a healthy heart could lead to a healthy brain.
She added: “One of the benefits of this research is that it eliminates the impact other socio-economic factors may play and focuses specifically on walking rather than exercise more generally.
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Scientists are developing an ultrasound device that could provide a groundbreaking new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
Ultrasound, a reverberating pitch too high for the human ear to recognize, is used to relax the muscles of aching athletes, melt the fat of liposuction patients and create images of foetuses in the womb.
Biomedical engineer Elisa Konofagou from Columbia University, now believes it could deliver intravenous drugs directly to the brain cells of Alzheimer’s sufferers.
There is currently no cure for the devastating degenerative condition, which affects more than 340,000 people in England.
One reason is because brain cells have a wall-like mass of protein netting commonly called the blood-brain barrier, which protects them from blood-surfing pathogens.
This means that although scientists have developed drugs proven to sustain neurons killed by the disease, they rarely reach their target because of the brain’s own self defense mechanisms.
Some researchers have made attempts to slow down the disease by injecting drugs directly into the area of the brain affected. But that procedure is risky, costly and fails 90 per cent of the time.
‘Neurodegenerative diseases are undertreated because of the blood-brain barrier,’ said Ms Konofagou
‘Certain treatments can slow down the symptoms, but the impairment of memory and cognitive ability is still jeopardized, and there are huge side effects.’
Now her team believes they can use ultrasound to temporarily open up the natural barrier between blood vessels from brain tissue in mice.
If the technique works in humans, she says, doctors could use ultrasound to deliver intravenous drugs directly into the brain cells of patients suffering from diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1321460/Scientists-developing-groundbreaking-ultrasound-device-Alzheimers-disease.html