Exercise can help maintain a healthy weight, encourage better sleep, improve mood and boost energy levels.
Dr. Scott Zimmerman, associate professor of biomedical sciences at Missouri State University, says it can also help combat the sixth leading cause of death in the United States: Alzheimer’s disease.
“Almost everyone is familiar with the idea that exercise has the potential to be the ‘cure for everything,’ or the preventative measure for everything,” said Zimmerman. “There’s actually quite a bit of evidence out there that says exercise is required for optimal health.”
While a cure has not yet been discovered, Zimmerman’s research on the intensity, frequency and volume of exercise is providing the basis for an understanding of how exercise can provide practical benefits in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
Exercise: A unique prescription for a perplexing disease
Alzheimer’s disease, says Zimmerman, is challenging and difficult to understand. His research focuses specifically on amyloid beta proteins, the main component in amyloid plaques, which are found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Alzheimer’s disease is strange in and of itself because it does not progress when people produce more amyloid beta proteins, but rather they actually seem to produce less than the non-Alzheimer’s patient,” said Zimmerman. “The proteins are produced slower, but perhaps build up in the brain faster because they are not removed as fast.”
To discover if exercise can have a positive impact on the progression on Alzheimer’s disease, Zimmerman’s research treats exercise like a drug.
“When we dose drugs for individuals, we try to match the amount of drug for somebody’s body size, age, metabolism and gender,” said Zimmerman. “We wanted to begin doing that with exercise.”
Persistence: How much, how often and when
Over the course of several studies, Zimmerman, in collaboration with Dr. Benjamin Timson, professor of biomedical sciences at Missouri State, will examine the effects of exercise on the production of amyloid beta proteins as well as how exercise may influence how they build up in the brain.
The first of these studies evaluated the impact of the intensity of exercise. Two groups exercised for the same amount of time, but at different intensities, with a third group not exercising as a control group. The higher intensity group showed a better response in all three areas of amyloid beta protein testing, although both exercising groups improved more than the control group.
These positive results inspired new questions that will lead to a variety of future research projects. One area in particular that Zimmerman is excited to explore is the concept of persistence.
“Most people are not lifelong exercisers — most are reasonably active as children, teenagers and young adults, but then things get in the way and it becomes more difficult to participate in exercise,” said Zimmerman. “They may take up exercise later as they realize the effects of aging or become concerned about their health.”
This question of persistence will guide Zimmerman as he works to mimic real-life behaviors and habits in his research.
“It will allow us to answer some important questions about how much, how often and during what period of life is exercise really going to be important,” said Zimmerman.
For more information, contact Zimmerman at (417) 836-6123.