News Briefs: September 2022
Exercise and Cognition
Previous research has suggested that physical activity lowers your risk of dementia as you age. The benefit is thought to derive from the cardiovascular protection offered by exercise. It can help prevent high blood pressure and excessive weight gain, both of which are associated with dementia. A new study published Jan. 7, 2022, in Alzheimer’s and Dementia suggests that exercise may have another important cognitive benefit, too. The study from the Rush University Memory and Aging project looked at 404 people who took part in a study that tracked the late-life physical activity of elderly participants who agreed to donate their brains when they died. According to the findings, when older adults stay active, their brains have more of a class of proteins that enhance the connections between brain cells. The effects ranged beyond the hippocampus, the brain’s seat of memory, to encompass other brain regions associated with cognition. The data dovetail with previous findings from the same research team demonstrating that people who had more of these proteins in their brains when they died were better able to maintain their cognition late in life. The general recommendation is to participate in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five days per week.
Healthy Diet May Slow Aging
A study that included researchers from the National Institutes of Health, the UCLA Department of Human Genetics, and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University investigated the relationship between diet quality and epigenetic age acceleration. Epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work, which can affect the aging process. Unlike genetic changes, epigenetic changes are reversible and do not change your DNA sequence, but they can change how your body reads a DNA sequence. The researchers gathered data using DNA methylation-based epigenetic age measures, which reveal biological aging markers and are associated with a healthy lifes pan. They analyzed data from 1,995 participants (mean age, 67 years; 55% women). Researchers looked for associations between the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and various epigenetic aging markers. They found that better diet quality was associated with decelerated biological aging, providing a promising avenue to explore the beneficial effects of diet on prolonged life spans. The study was published Jan. 11, 2022, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The DASH diet is an eating pattern promoted by the U.S.-based National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to prevent and control hypertension. It emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-salt and low-fat dairy foods.
New Recommendations on Aspirin for Heart Disease/Stroke Prevention
Earlier this year, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) published a final recommendation statement on aspirin use to prevent heart disease and stroke, also known as cardiovascular disease (CVD), stating that people ages 60 or older should not start taking aspirin to prevent a first heart attack or stroke. “Because the chance of internal bleeding increases with age, the potential harms of aspirin use cancel out the benefits in this age group,” says Task Force vice chair Michael Barry, MD, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. The most serious potential harm is internal bleeding in the stomach, intestines, and brain. Importantly, these recommendations are not for people who already have heart disease, have had a stroke, or are already taking aspirin; these people should talk to their health-care providers about their individual circumstances. If you already take aspirin and have questions about it, talk with your doctor. The Task Force is an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that works to improve public health by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screenings, counseling services, and preventive medications. They encourage shared decision-making between health-care professionals and patients so that the decision made is best for a patient’s health and in line with personal values and preferences. The Task Force’s final recommendation statement and study were published online April 26, 2022, in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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