Exercise protects against Alzheimer's disease



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DIRECT EFFECT Ferreira and his colleagues at the UFRJ have verified how swimming or running, for example, stimulates the brain production of irisin, a hormone that helps protect neurons [19659003] Medicine is considering physical exercise. a natural cure for heart attacks, strokes, depression and cancer. More recently, it has been shown that the brain has advantages, particularly to limit the memory loss and cognitive decline that characterize Alzheimer's disease. Last week, Brazilian researchers confirmed the positive effects of this practice and went further by showing that the mechanism to exercise regularly is a good way to prevent and treat the disease. In an article published in the online version of the journal Nature Medicine, the team of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro responsible for the study showed that the explanation lies in the Irisine, hormone released during exercise. It protects the brain and restores the ability to memorize lost losses as the disease progresses.

The information revealed by the Brazilians is an important piece of the huge puzzle that still represents today 's Alzheimer' s for drugs. There is no treatment, no specific diagnostic examination, and no well-established prevention program. Indeed, like most neurodegenerative diseases, their origin and evolution have complex causes and are difficult to study with available resources. The problem is that with the aging of the population, it is urgent to find effective ways to prevent it and treat it. Today, about 35 million people in the world have the disease – a million in Brazil. By 2050, there will be 135 million people on the planet, which will make it a major public health problem.

Chemical messenger
Irisine became known in 2012, when American biologist Bruce Spiegelman of Harvard University (USA) described him as a chemical messenger produced by the exercises. Then came inspiration for his name, that of the Greek messenger Iris. The hormone becomes a white adipose tissue, which stores energy in the form of fat, in brown. This dissipates the energy in the form of heat.

His description inspired Brazilian scientists to study what their role in the brain would be. It consisted of seven years of research on guinea pigs, brain samples from deceased patients, and cerebrospinal fluid from patients. They have come to important conclusions: Physical exercise stimulates the production of irisin directly in the brain, where it preserves synapses, spaces between neurons or neurotransmitters (substances that communicate between nerve cells ) are moving. "In addition, the hormone causes chemical reactions in neurons important to memory," says Sérgio Ferreira, one of the authors of the study. All of these functions protect the brain from the loss of the ability to learn and store information, or even restore what has been lost.

Data can support the creation of cures for diseases. But there is still a long way to go. The next step for researchers is to better understand the role of the hormone in the brain. Then, there are still stages of research in the laboratory and, finally, in humans. All this will take years. However, the information that exercise helps to prevent and delay the disease should already serve as an additional stimulus to his practice. There is no fixed time (the guinea pigs were swimming for one hour a day for five weeks), but at least, for example, the good old daily guide of 20 minutes walk is a good start.

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