(27-09-11) How Exercise Could Prevent Brain Damage

by Jeff Jurmain, MA

In another in a stream of health breakthroughs regarding the effects of Alzheimer's disease, a study has found that exercise could shield your brain even more dramatically than we thought. While it's been widely reported that exercise could protect against dementia, we now know that regular exercise could help prevent brain damage itself, the kind linked to diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Exercise, an integral part of one's natural health, allows the brain to rapidly produce chemicals that prevent inflammation. This alone can lead to a new therapy for early prevention of brain damage. On the flip side, it will help anyone protect themselves.

Older studies show that exercise after brain injury can help with repair. This new study shows that exercise before such damage will change your brain in a way where neurons gain greater protection from severe assaults. It used mice and an experimental model where they were exposed to a chemical that destroys the hippocampus, an area of the brain that controls learning and memory. Mice that were exercised regularly before exposure produced an immune messenger called "interleukin-6" in the brain. This dampens the harmful inflammatory response to this damage, and prevents the loss of function that is usually observed.

Prescription drugs have not been so successful in lowering inflammation and addressing cognitive decline in older adults, as well as those with dementia. So this shows how simple exercise may be used in place of drugs to change the course of even severe degenerative problems such as Alzheimer's. It also suggests that exercise could offer protection against environmental toxins.

The study on the role of exercise as a therapeutic intervention will undoubtedly get a workout in the years to come. The biggest challenge moving forward is to get everyone moving, making exercise a fundamental part of one's life. Doing so means attempting to get at least 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise. If you have weight issues or health conditions that may make exercise difficult, be sure to speak to your physician about creating a manageable and safe plan for exercise.

Source: Funk, J., et al., "Voluntary exercise protects hippocampal neurons from trimethyltin injury: Possible role of interleukin-6 to modulate tumor necrosis factor receptor- mediated neurotoxicity," Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Aug. 2011; 25(6).

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