Review
Physical Activity and Alzheimer's Disease: From Prevention to Therapeutic Perspectives

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A number of factors, including physical activity, may contribute to prevention of cognitive decline and delay the onset of dementia. In addition to its convincing multiple benefits, an increasing body of evidence suggests that an active life has a protective effect on brain functioning in elders. Physical activity may also slow down the course of Alzheimer's disease. These hypotheses have led to increasing research in this specific area during the past decade. This review systematically analyzes the current literature on Alzheimer's disease and the effect of physical activity. Epidemiological studies, short-term randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in nondemented participants, and biological research suggest that physical activity improves cognitive function in older subjects. The limitations of these works are discussed. No RCTs have yet demonstrated that regular physical activity prevents dementia. Additional challenging clinical interventional studies are needed to demonstrate this relationship, but accumulating evidence from biological research is available. Defining the optimal preventive and therapeutic strategies in terms of type, duration, and intensity of physical activity remain an open question. In the future, the prevention of Alzheimer's disease may be based on rules governing lifestyle habits such as diet, cognitive activity, and physical activity.

Section snippets

Methods

This review was conducted by identifying the relevant articles published between January 1966 and October 2007 and referenced in PubMed, Medline, and BIOSIS, using the following key words: Alzheimer, cognitive decline, dementia, physical activity, and exercise. Manual research and cross-referencing from previous literature, reviews, and original articles were also performed. Retrospective studies, such as case-control studies,4, 5 are only briefly cited here because they are subject to

Physical Activity and the Prevention of Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, or Cognitive Decline

All evidence related to the prevention of dementia or Alzheimer's disease by means of physical activity is derived from case-control studies and cross-sectional and longitudinal epidemiological studies. We found 24 longitudinal epidemiological studies that evaluated the possible impact of physical activity on cognitive decline, dementia, and/or Alzheimer's disease. There is currently no evidence based on RCTs relating to the efficacy of physical activity in preventing or delaying the onset of

Physical Activity and Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease

This review suggested that physical activity could result in better brain health, prevent cognitive decline, and reduce the incidence of AD. Physical activity could protect against cognitive decline and dementia through a reduction of various cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and obesity. However, most of the epidemiological studies reported a protective effect after adjustment for these cardiovascular risk factors, suggesting that physical

Conclusion

Regular physical activity is a key component of successful aging. In addition to its convincing multiple benefits, increasing evidence suggests that an active life has a protective effect on brain functioning in the elderly population. Physical activity may also slow down the course of AD.

Epidemiological studies, short-term RCTs in nondemented participants, and biological research suggest that physical activity improves cognitive functioning in older subjects. However, no RCTs have yet

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    The authors have no conflicts of interest pertaining to this article.

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