New research in the journal Neurology shows that activity and exercise helps brain deal with pathologies, including Lewy Bodies and the Tau proteins of Alzheimer’s Disease. The result is better cognition.
There’s an interesting distinction in this study from earlier investigations that showed the impacts of exercise on cognition. The new research shows that exercise doesn’t protect the brain, nor prevent dementia, but it helps the brain work better, despite the progression of the disease.
I was very fortunate to have the ability and resources to keep my loved one active to the very end, and I’m convinced that exercise helped her deal much better with the years of LBD progression. Additionally, physical activity has so many other benefits that it should be enabled whenever possible. The benefits can include improved sleep, digestion, pain reduction, heart and lung function, mood, socialization, appetite and more.
If your doctor approves activity, and its safe for both the carer and the person with the condition, it could be transformational.
Strength to all!
Timothy Hudson
For more on this research, check the following
– News story in the Guardian
– Medical journal Neurology link
Dear Mr. Hudson
My brother lives in a nursing home in Stamford, CT and suffers from both LBD and also Type-1 Diabetes. His neurologist has prescribed daily exercise but Medicare refuses to authorize it. What can we do?
Rina.
That’s a tough call, Rina. I’m not sure how best to proceed, since I’m in Canada, and we don’t have Medicare here. We have something similar, and I found that I had to do all the “legwork” to find a place that’d accept OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) coverage, and they did the paperwork. This may not work for you.
Certainly, in pretty much every instance, I had to do much more than I anticipated to get ANY sort of help or action. That’s just another difficult issue to contend with, when you’re already doing hero’s work as a Lewy carer.
Hope you can find a way to get the exercise started — it made a monumental difference to my Mom with LBD.
Strength to you!
Timothy Hudson
Your brother can get up in the morning, get dressed, and walk outdoors for a half hour. Need help, get a cane. He can do this every day. Would not cost a penny. If there is a nearby public pool he can swim for an hour. He can do pushups, jumping jacks, leg lifts, crunches , you name it, for free in his room. No cost to anyone.
This is all true, David. But many people cannot do this at all on their own, particularly since they often lack the balance and postural stability to do so, as things progress. Of the countless people I’ve interacted with over the many years, falls are one of the biggest immediate risks even early on. So it isn’t always as easy as we’d wish.
Strength and courage to you, and congratulations on your retirement from Purdue and a distinguished career there.
Timothy Hudson