W9: Dementia Flashcards
What is dementia. Describe what skills are impaired
Dementia is an organic disorder in which. changes in the physical structure of the brain occurs which is the cause of illness including the death of brain cells in certain parts of the brain.
There are many types of dementia including alzheimers, Vascular dementia, dementia with lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia and mixed dementia.
The 6 cognitive domains in which dementia could affect are complex attention, social cognition, language, perceptual-motor function, learning memory, and executive function. Ultimately the ability to problem solve, concentrate, memorise, percept, and think declines.
Give some recommendations of exercise to prevent dementia.
CV based training + resistance training + cognitive tasks.
between 45 and 60 minutes.
Any frequency and moderate intensity
at least 6 months of interventions (Cardona et al., 2021)
How might physical activity be used to prevent dementia. What might be the mechanism behind physical acitivty’s effect on dementia?
By participating in physical activity, an increase in blood flow, neurotransmitters and growth hormones, testosterone and decrease in insulin resistance are suggested to increase hippocampal neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity as well as decrease amyloid. These changes is suggested to facilitate in enhancing cognition and decrease the risk of dementia (Brown et al., 2013).
*amyloid production make it difficult for organs and tissue to work properly
Physical activity may be beneficial in preventing dementia. Paterson et al., (2010) found that there 71% of studies investigating physical activity and dementia found positive affect on cognitive function (higher amount or intensity the better, improved cognitive function, delaying onset of dementia, less likely to develop dementia or Alzheimers). Furthermore, another study revealed that physical activity prevents the relative risk of cognitive decline, and higher physical activity levels was associated with a 14% reduction in the risk of dementia compared to those that engage in lower levels of physical activity (Blondell et al., 2014). Finally in assessing the relationship between all-caused dementia, alzheimer, vascular dementia and physical activity, there was a linear relationship between all-caused dementia and physical activity from 0-10000kcal/week with a 4% decrease. for every 500kcal/week. dissimilarly for alzheimers, there was a nonlinear relationship up until 1000kcal/week where the relationship plataues. Therefore this research revealed a dose-response relationship between alzheimers, and all-caused dementia with physical activity (Wei Xu et al., 2017)
How might physical activity be used as a treatment for dementia. What might be the mechanism?
Physical activity may have beneficial effects on treating dementia. One systematic review that assessed the effect of physical activity on cognitive function and activities for daily living. In this study physical activity seemed to have improved the ability for dementia patients to participate in daily activities, however there seemed to have no beneficial effect on cognitive functioning (Forbes et al., 2013). This study suggested that physical activity may not have any additive affect on cognitive functioning but may be on daily activities. Nevertheless, in interpreting this data there was 2 considerations in the quality of the results and it’s heterogeneity. One was that there were many types of dementia assessed in the different studies where there were non-specific results. The other concern was that there each studies had different modes, frequency and duration of exercise programs which made it difficult to generalise the study results. Despite this the studies results implied the beneficial effects that physical activity may have upon daily activity of living in patients with dementia.
adding onto this study, another more recent study investigated a similar topic. This study was a more recent version which assessed the effects of physical activity on cognitive functioning. The results revealed that physical activity indeed had beneficial effects on cognitive functioning. In particular a mixed program of aerobic activities, strength training and cognitive task improved cognitive functioning of dementia patients (Cardona et al., 2021). More specifically, The benefits were towards an improved frontal cognitive functions, episodic memories, global cognition, working memory, executive memory, and processing speed. One thing to note is the fact that these improvements were not seen in interventions lasting only 0-6 months, however the benefits were more profound when the intervention lasted more than 6 months
Give some prescription for dementia patients considering physical activity
For improvements in cognitive functioning, dementia patient should engage in aerobic training with resistance training and cognitive tasks. These training should be 45-60 minutes in length, where they should be performed in more than 3 times a week for > 6 months to see the benefits (Cardona et al., 2021).
