Parkinson's disease: Intense exercise may help to keep the disease at bay

Medical Xpress / Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore / Science Advances ^ | July 14, 2023 | Gioia Marino et al

[ConservativeMind]

Neuroscientists have found that intensive exercise could slow the course of Parkinson's disease. The finding could pave the way for new non-drug approaches.

The research has identified a new mechanism responsible for the positive effects of exercise on brain plasticity.

Professor Paolo Calabresi, said, "We have discovered a never observed mechanism, through which exercise performed in the early stages of the disease induces beneficial effects on movement control that may last over time even after training is suspended."

Previous work has shown that intensive physical activity is associated with increased production of a critical growth factor, the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

The authors were able to reproduce this phenomenon in response to a four-week treadmill training protocol in an animal model of early-stage Parkinson's disease, and to demonstrate, for the first time, how this neurotrophic factor determines the beneficial effects of physical activity in the brain.

The main effect observed in response to daily sessions of treadmill training is a reduction in the spread of pathological alpha-synuclein aggregates, which in Parkinson's disease leads to the gradual and progressive dysfunction of neurons in specific brain areas (the substantia nigra pars compacta and the striatum—constituting the so-called nigrostriatal pathway), essential to motor control.

The neuroprotective effect of physical activity is associated with the survival of neurons releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine and with the consequent striatal neurons' ability to express a form of dopamine-dependent plasticity, aspects otherwise impaired by the disease.

As a result, motor control and visuospatial learning, which depend on nigrostriatal activity, are conserved in animals that practice intensive training.

Neuroscientists have also found that BDNF, whose levels increase with exercise, interacts with the NMDA receptor for glutamate, enabling neurons in the striatum to respond efficiently to stimuli, with effects that persist beyond the exercise practice.

[Bonemaker]

I used to run, swim, ride bike. Covid killed off swimming for a time and ankles killed running/bike. Have not re- started anything yet although I think I could now. Got lazy.

[EEGator]

Sounds like you earned some lazy time. Swimming and yoga are really low impact. A little here and there is good enough.
You could likely do next to nothing and still be fine.
You put in tons of work.