Aerobic Exercise for Older Adults at Increased Risk of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias

The estimated annual cost of dementia in Canada is $15 billion, with a projected cumulative economic burden of $800 billion by 2038. Effective prevention of dementia at a population level will need to include lifestyle factors such as promoting higher levels of physical activity. Physical inactivity is a modifiable risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD) and cognitive decline, but the mechanisms by which physical activity exerts its protective effect on the brain remain unknown. Motivated by the need to develop strategies to prevent and treat AD and related dementias (ADRD), the investigators' overall research goal is to discover why the aging brain develops ADRD. To achieve this goal the investigators adopt a translational physiology approach (i.e., study of physiology from molecule/cell to population) to investigate how exercise improves cognitive performance, and the underlying mechanisms by which exercise prevents and/or slows down age-related declines in brain health and cognition. This approach allows the investigators to determine how physiological function is related to ADRD, with important implications for health. The investigators' prior work demonstrated a significant relationship between fitness, vascular regulation and cognition in older adults free of overt disease. These findings have implications for vascular cognitive impairment and ADRD, in which hypoperfusion and dysregulation of cerebral blood flow are thought to be important pathophysiological factors. The…

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Marc J Poulin, PhD, DPhil  ·  403-220-8372  ·  poulin@ucalgary.ca

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