Patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease who exercise regularly suffer less deterioration in the areas of the brain that control memory, according to a study issued yesterday at the 2008 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease, held in Chicago.
Another study, from Western Australia, that was presented to the same conference, finds that patients with dementia who undertake home-based exercise programs have fewer falls and better balance.
In the brain study, magnetic resonance imaging showed that exercise benefited the hippocampus region of patients' brains, which is important for memory and balance.
In Alzheimer's, the hippocampus is one of the first parts of the brain to suffer damage.
Exercise and physical fitness have been shown to slow the death rate of brain cells in health older adults.
A preliminary study published earlier this month showed that exercise may help slow brain shrinkage in people in the early phases of Alzheimer's.
Now, researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Centre have used MRI and other neuro-imaging tools to analyse how exercise affects the brains of those in the early stages of the disease.
The researchers found that patients with early Alzheimer's unlike health older adults exhibited a ''significant relationship'' between the size of key brain areas associated with memory and fitness.
Those patients with better fitness ratings had less brain-tissue atrophy; those with worse fitness had more brain damage.
A lead investigator with the researchers, Robyn A.Honea, said, ''This is the first study to get an inside look into specifically where these changes occur in the brain.
''We're able to locate the changes associated with fitness to the actual memory region, the hippocampus, which is a key area for Alzheimer's-related atrophy.
''This suggests that maintaining cardio-respiratory fitness may positively modify Alzheimer's-related brain atrophy.''
The study was funded by the United States' National Institute on Ageing as well as the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
According to researchers from Western Medicine, a provider of consultant physicians to Hollywood Hospital in the Perth suburb of Nedlands, people suffering from dementia fall up to three times more than those who have no cognitive impairment.
A speech pathologist at Western Medicine, Megan J.Wraith, addressed the conference, saying, ''Falls have a negative impact on a person's quality of life, often resulting in nursing home placement, increased mortality and significant costs to the community.
''Targeting this high-risk group may be a relatively cost-effective way of having a significant impact on the overall rate of falling in the elderly,'' she said.
The study was funded by WA's Sir Charles Gairdner Research Foundation and Hollywood Private Hospital Research Foundation.
The current prognosis for Alzheimer's patients is bleak. While there exist several drugs on the market that fight symptoms of the disease, none of them can stop its ultimate progress.
Wyeth and Elan Corporation are currently developing a new kind of Alzheimer's treatment bapineuzumab which is designed to retard the actual progress of Alzheimer's disease.
Last month, it has been claimed, study data showed that the drug was benefiting Alzheimer's patients who lacked a certain gene. AP