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Cavemen Don't Get Alzheimer's
We May Be Too Lazy for Our Own Good
By L.A. McKeown
WebMD Medical News
March 5, 2001 -- Early man (and woman) had it pretty rough -- and that may have been good for their brains. When they weren't chasing after something to kill and eat, something bigger was doing the same to them, and all the mental and physical activity required just for staying alive may have helped ward off degenerative brain illnesses like Alzheimer's disease, new research suggests.
It's a "use it or lose it" message that is all the more important in today's computerized, microwavable, ergonomically reclined world, researchers say.
"It's good for people to be intellectually active at school and at work and also when they're not working," says Robert P. Friedland, MD, lead author of a new study that shows people who are inactive in their 20s to their 60s may increase their risk of getting Alzheimer's by a whopping 250%.
The study appears in the March issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Friedland, associate professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, studied 193 patients with probable or possible Alzheimer's and 358 healthy people used for comparison. Participants were asked about the types of recreational activities they engaged in, as well as the diversity, intensity, and percentage of hours devoted to each activity per month.
His findings: The people in the healthy study group had a lifelong history of more intellectual activities, physical activities, and passive pastimes (other than watching television) than did those with Alzheimer's -- and this held true even when factoring in variables like education, age, sex, and income. Such activity may help maintain the physical well-being of the brain, Friedland says, and may help it deal more effectively with the buildup of a substance called amyloid protein, which is associated with Alzheimer's disease.
And since genes play such a large role in predicting who will get Alzheimer's, people with a family history of the disease may want to pay particular attention to these latest findings, he says.
But not everyone is ready to tell people to run out and learn a new language or take up a sport to protect themselves against Alzheimer's disease.
Studies such as this one, in which people are asked to recall information about their activities, are notoriously prone to errors, says Bill Thies, PhD, vice president for medical and scientific affairs for the Alzheimer's Association in Chicago.
Also, he points out, there have been no "before" and "after" studies showing that people who were less active and then became more active lowered their risk of getting the disease over time. The authors address this point as well.
"We cannot exclude the possibility that our data reflects the very early effects of the disease, several decades before symptom onset," Friedland and his co-authors write. Therefore, they say, it's not possible at present to determine whether the lack of activities is a cause of Alzheimer's or one of its very earliest symptoms.
While many of us could probably benefit from being more active, Thies says, the study isn't specific enough in telling people what sort of activities they should engage in to protect themselves from Alzheimer's.
Nevertheless, Friedland says, the study serves as a warning to couch potatoes everywhere how far we've strayed from our caveman roots.
"We had to be mentally and physically alert because there was no plumbing and no electricity, and we had to be careful or we might be eaten by some larger predator. And if we wanted water, we had to go to the river to get it," Friedland says. "Now we have the problem known as 'homo sedentariu,' and we haven't had time to develop couch potato genes."
The study also may be a warning to people eager for early retirement and a leisurely existence.
"In theory, you would be increasing your risk of getting Alzheimer's," Friedland says. "Activity is desirable. I really don't want people to think they have to go take a class in Japanese opera if they hate it, but everybody likes something or other. People are capable of learning at any age, and learning is good for the brain." |
