14 Mar Leisure Physical Activities Linked To Increase in Brain Gray Matter
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Cyrus Raji
Cyrus A. Raji, MD, PhD
Resident in Diagnostic Radiology
UCLA Health System
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Raji: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between caloric expenditure from leisure physical activities (15 different ones were assessed from walking to gardening to dancing to swimming etc.).
Increased caloric expenditure from these physical activities were related to larger gray matter volumes in key brain areas for memory and learning (hippocampus, precuneus) that are also affected by Alzheimer’s. These findings were demonstrated in 876 persons who had MRI scans and caloric expenditure assessed. Five years after the scan a subset of 326 persons from the larger group of 876 were followed cognitively and it was found that those with larger gray matter volumes associated with physical activity in the orbital frontal cortex and precuneus had a 2 fold reduction in the risk for cognitive decline to mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s dementia.
MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Dr. Raji: Leisure physical activities are correlated to volumetric increases in gray matter on MRI that, if obtained, can confer an independent reduction in the future risk of Alzheimer’s dementia.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Dr. Raji: Randomized clinical trials to further extend these findings into clinical practice.
MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Dr. Raji: Thank you very much for your interest in the work of myself and my collaborators.
Citation: Cyrus A. Raji, David A. Merrill, Harris Eyre, Sravya Mallam, Nare Torosyan, Kirk I. Erickson, Oscar L. Lopez, James T. Beckere, Owen T. Carmichael, H. Michael Gach, Paul M. Thompson, W.T. Longstreth, Jr., Lewis H. Kuller. Longitudinal Relationships between Caloric Expenditure and Gray Matter in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, March 2016 DOI: 10.3233/JAD-160057
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Dr. Cyrus A. Raji (2016). Leisure Physical Activities Linked To Increase in Brain Gray Matter MedicalResearch.com
Last Updated on March 14, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD