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Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Exercise helps slow down mental deterioration
By Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T.
Breakthroughs
“The ageing process has you firmly in its grasp, if you never get the urge to throw a snowball,” says Doug Larson, a British gold medalist for middle-distance running in the 1924 Olympic Games (Paris, France).
While ageing is more than getting wrinkles on the face, mental deterioration is more than forgetting a lot of things.
A recent study reinforces what is known of amyloid-beta in bringing out mental deterioration in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, a common age-related condition. Amyloid-beta accumulates in clumps throughout the brain, leading to Alzheimer’s disease. Meanwhile, it has been known that a protein called megalin can wash out amyloid-beta into the blood stream, providing the brain some protection from functional deterioration.
In the study, led by Ignacio Torres-Aleman, the mice were induced to exhibit Alzheimer-like disease and the level of megalin
was manipulated to observe its effect. Artificially boosting megalin levels in mice shows improvements in the mental performance of mice as measured through a maze test. It also shows that exercise doubles the levels of megalin.
Torres-Aleman is a researcher Cajal Institute in Madrid, Spain. The findings appear in this year’s issue of Journal of Neuroscience.
Previous studies have shown that megalin binds with insulin-like growth factor (IGF), and transports it to the brain. IGF is a substance in the human body that keeps nerve cells healthy as it increases muscular mass. The researchers believe that these dual functions of megalin-cleansing and transporting underlie its preventive effect against mental deterioration.
However, as a person ages, amyloid-beta accumulates in the brain while megalin level declines.
“Although the evidence is mounting up,” says Mark Mattson, “the link between exercise and brain health is not certain in humans.” Mattson is a researcher at the National Institute of Aging in Baltimore, Maryland (USA). The recent study appeared to suggest a link between exercise and brain health with megalin.
But ageing is an inevitable fact of life, of which only its conditions are within our relative control.
Ask Kitty O’Neill, the deaf woman who held the female land speed record in the US: “Aging seems to be the only available way to live a long life.” The length of life, indeed, is a given. The depth and width are ours to determine.
(For comments and suggestions, write to: ztliteratus6046@lycos.com.)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 1, 2006 issue)
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