Covid-19 pandemic has impacted communities across the world. In order to mitigate the spread of virus, the government is promotoming ‘social distacing’ at a population level and ‘self-isolation’ of elderly people. However, despite the importance of Public Health and Social Measures (PHSM), the government face challenges to maintaining a physically active lifestyle, particularly for older adults.
According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, it is predicted that the global population of elderly people in developed and developing countries will double by 2050. As the number of people aged over 80 years is rising rapidly, it is increasingly important for individuals to maintain their quality of life, whilst preventing chronic conditions.
Physical activity among elders is one of the most widely recommended practices to support the brain, cognitive aging, and even delay memory loss from Alzheimer’s disease.
Elderly People Should Exercise Regularly Credit: Donald Davis
According to a UC San Francisco study which was the first to utilize a set of data from human subjects, it has been discovered that proteins, which aid connection between neurons to maintain healthy cognition function, are found more abundantly in elderly people who remain more active.
This discovery has also been proven true in people with toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Furthermore, microglia is a specialized population of macrophages in the central nervous system (CNS) that can regulate a potent inflammatory response by clearing away biological debris in the brain.
Source: What Are Microglia?
During communication between neurotransmitters, the neuron releases a small peptide called amyloid-beta. An accumulation of amyloid-beta, in severe cases, result in memory loss and other cognitive diseases; the microglia is important because it clears such accumulation.
Source:What you can do to prevent Alzheimer’s
One such cognitive disease that is affected by accumulation of amyloid beta is Alzheimer’s. While the main cause of Alzheimer’s is still debated among many scientists, most neuroscientists believe that this is true.
To prove the effectiveness of elderly physical activity on cognitive health and wellbeing, Kaitlin Casaletto, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Neurology, conducted a study to show the relationship between synaptic protein regulation and physical activity.
More Proteins Mean Better Nerve Signals
Her study traced the late-life physical activity of elderly participants who gave consent to donate their brains after death. Researchers examined 167 stored brains to trace lingering biochemical markers of microglia activity.
The research found a strong linear relationship between levels of activity and healthy microglia, especially in the hippocampus, which is known to regulate memory as well as other functions in the brain. Also, more protein was found in the brains of elderly people who remained more active during their late years.
Greater average late-life physical activity relates to higher synaptic protein
Credit: Kaitlin Casaletto PhD
On the other hand, the relatively less active participants’ microglia tended to look very dysfunctional with low memory capacity compared to those with more active lifestyles.
While there is no perfect cure for Alzheimer’s disease, there are things we can still do to delay or alter complete memory loss. Since recent research has exemplified the positive overall effect of physical activity on cognitive health and function, a greater focus on educating elders and caretakers to support a more proactive and physical lifestyle may be worth pursuing. Turns out, exercise is not only good for the heart and the body, but also for our most used organ – the brain.
-Yeonjun (Irene) Choi