exercise – Red lights on the brain

Parkinson’s and AI

Artificial intelligence is making its way into so many areas.

A report from the BBC makes very interesting reading.

Thanks to Gertrūda Valasevičiūtė on Unsplash for the futuristic image.

Blooming brain

The New Scientist published an article a few weeks ago called How to keep your brain blooming. It’s written by by James Goodwin, someone who knows a lot about brains.

Exercise and sleep in Alzheimer’s

The previous blog looked at a journal article entitled: Effects of exercise on sleep in neurodegenerative disease, and focussed on its comments about sleep, exercise and Parkinson’s disease. This post looks at what the article has to say about exercise, sleep and Alzheimer’s disease.

Exercise and sleep in Parkinson’s

Hot off the research press is a journal article with a self-explanatory title: Effects of exercise on sleep in neurodegenerative disease.

It starts by summarising the main things that affect sleep in people with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases as being:

damage to the sleep-wake system in the brain, that affects the circadian rhythm and disrupts normal sleeping and waking patterns; and
“secondary mechanisms” which include a raft of things like medication side effects, having to get up to the toilet during the night, poor sleep “hygiene”, sleep-related breathing disorders, and the environment in which you try to sleep.

Walking Poles

Australia’s ABC has a terrific article about waking with poles. It is very relevant to people with Parkinson’s as there is no doubt that exercise (raise your heart rate and really move-your-body type of exercise) protects your brain cells and slows down the progress of the disease.

Movement and Molecules

Below is an excellent article written by Gretchen Reynolds, first published in the New York Times and reprinted in The Age on 1 December 2020. Reynolds describes new research into the effect of movement on molecules in the blood and what that might mean for quality of life and length of life.

If you’ve ever thought that exercise of any degree or duration is over-rated, then this is the article for you: Link

Thanks to John Moeses Bauan from Unsplash for this gorgeous photo.