04/04/2016
Despite evidence already suggesting a link between exercise and mental vitality, new research has gone even further and shown that there is a link between just thinking about exercise and a healthier brain.
Australian and German researchers have been investigating the reasons why exercise slows the onset of dementia. Research leader Dr Dave Askew said the team had been attempting to find out whether just simulation had a part to play and whether just thinking about exercise could improve the quality of life of sufferers of the disease.
"It's well established that people who have exercised throughout their lives have a lower risk of developing dementia. And people who are fitter at an older age: they're also at a lower risk of developing dementia," he said.
"So we think that people who are demonstrating signs of mild cognitive impairment at the early stages of dementia are probably a key group who may benefit from forms of exercise as therapy."
The reason for the effects are that just thinking about exercise helped to increase blood flow in a similar way that actual exercise can.
"We can see increases in blood flow even when we're thinking about exercise," he said.
"So we're trying to separate the physical stimuli for that increase in blood flow from the mental stimuli from the increases in brain blood flow."
Participants in the study should either exercise, or just imagine it.
"The patients are sitting on a bike but they're in a virtual reality environment where they're pedalling the bike on the screen but they're not actually performing any exercise physically," Dr Askew said.
"So we're essentially asking the person to think about the exercise while they're watching a virtual reality character undertake that exercise."
As a result of the positive blood show in patients who simply think about exercise, the possibility of therapy for dementia and stroke sufferers becomes a definite option.
Daniel James
www.danieljamesbio.com
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