In a new study from King’s College London, researchers found that both diet and exercise can influence the risk of cognitive decline and dementia by potentially influencing hippocampal neurogenesis long before their onset.
The findings suggest that altered neurogenesis (the process by which the brain produces new brain cells) in the brain could potentially represent an early biomarker for both cognitive decline and dementia.
In the study, the team examined how the blood of participants with and without cognitive decline and dementia could influence hippocampal neurogenesis in laboratory settings and whether diet and exercise were important factors.
Specifically, blood samples of 418 French adults over the age of 65 were collected 12-years prior to cognitive decline and dementia diagnosis and tested on human hippocampal stems cells.
The researchers found that 12 years prior to diagnosis, both cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s were associated with levels of neural stem cell death.
The team also found that exercise, nutrition, vitamin D levels, carotenoid and lipid levels are all associated with the rate at which cells die off. Furthermore, physical activity and nutrition were key factors that then also determined cognitive decline status.
Specifically, researchers found that reduced physical activity and increased malnutrition both increased cell death which in turn increased the risk for future cognitive decline.
While previous studies have found that diet and exercise have some protective effects against cognitive decline and dementia, these roles have been poorly understood at the neurobiological level.
The study showed not only that there are individual markers of hippocampal neurogenesis associated with cognitive decline and dementia 12 years later, but also that there is some degree of specificity with respect to diagnoses of dementia subtypes.
According to Alzheimer’s Research UK, there were a total of 525,315 people living with a dementia diagnosis in the UK in 2020. Rates of cognitive decline and dementia are expected to triple in prevalence by 2040.
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The study is published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. One author of the study is Dr. Sandrine Thuret.
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