neurodegeneration tagged posts

High-Intensity Exercise can Reverse Neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s, study suggests

Dopamine Transporter Levels Pre- and Post-Exercise. A Average 18F-FE-PE2I DAT BPND images before and after six months of exercise. The red box including the midbrain and SN is enlarged. B 18F-FE-PE2I BPND in the SN pre- and post-exercise by study participant. Individual lines are red if an increase was observed, blue if a decrease was observed. The solid black line represents the mean of our cohort, the dashed black line represents the expected decrease from the pre-exercise average in the absence of intervention. Credit: npj Parkinson’s Disease (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41531-024-00641-1

High-intensity exercise induces brain-protective effects that have the potential to not just slow down but possibly reverse the neurodegeneration associated with Parkinson’s disease, a new pilot ...

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Gut Bacteria affect Brain Health, Mouse study shows

Gut bacteria can influence brain health, according to a study of mice genetically predisposed to develop Alzheimer’s-like brain damage. The study, by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, indicates that gut bacteria produce compounds that influence the behavior of immune cells, including ones in the brain that can cause neurodegeneration. The findings suggest a new approach to treating Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Getty Images

Findings suggest new approach to treating Alzheimer’s, other neurodegenerative diseases. Gut bacteria can influence brain health, according to a study of mice genetically predisposed to develop Alzheimer’s-like brain damage...

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Type 2 Diabetes Accelerates Brain Aging and Cognitive Decline

Aging effects on the brain, further exacerbated in type 2 diabetes. Image credit: Lilianne Mujica-Parodi (CC BY 4.0)

Scientists have demonstrated that normal brain aging is accelerated by approximately 26% in people with progressive type 2 diabetes compared with individuals without the disease, reports a study published today in eLife.

The authors evaluated the relationship between typical brain aging and that seen in type 2 diabetes, and observed that type 2 diabetes follows a similar pattern of neurodegeneration as aging, but which progresses faster. One important implication of this finding is that even typical brain aging may reflect changes in the brain’s regulation of glucose by insulin.

The results further suggest that by the time type 2 diabetes is formally diagnosed, the...

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Loss of Neurons, Not Lack of Sleep, makes Alzheimer’s Patients Drowsy

Neurons that promote wakefulness in the brain of an Alzheimer’s patient (green). There are far fewer functioning neurons that would be seen in a healthy brain, indicating that the awake system is weakened in this patient. Image by Grinberg Lab

Reviving ‘awake neurons’ could be the solution to their sleepiness. The lethargy that many Alzheimer’s patients experience is caused not by a lack of sleep, but rather by the degeneration of a type of neuron that keeps us awake, according to a study that also confirms the tau protein is behind that neurodegeneration.

The study’s findings contradict the common notion that Alzheimer’s patients sleep during the day to make up for a bad night of sleep and point toward potential therapies to help these patients feel more awake.

The data came fro...

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