
How Exercise Might “Clean” the Alzheimer's Brain - extraterra
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-exercise-might-clean-the-alzheimers-brain1/
======
DoreenMichele
So, some biology 101:

The lymphatic system is powered in part by the circulatory system and in part
by physical activity (aka "exercise"). Fluid from the blood, minus certain
blood products, goes out into the tissues and becomes _interstitial fluid._
Muscle action dramatically increases the rate at which it gets returned from
the tissues to the blood.

This is the mechanism by which the body cleans up most tissues. Except for the
brain. The brain has a separate mechanism whereby lymphatic fluid (aka
_interstitial fluid_ ) gets flushed out, taking wastes with it, only during
sleep. This is a primary function of sleep.

Personal firsthand experience suggests that exercise is frequently followed by
napping precisely because these are separate systems. Exercise may start this
process by flushing out other tissues, but your brain won't get flushed of
wastes until you sleep.

If you want to benefit from this research, you will need to have good sleep
hygiene in addition to exercising. From what I gather, aerobic exercise is
likely to do more good from the perspective of powering the lymphatic system
than weight lifting.

~~~
rhombocombus
Not to mention the fact that good sleep hygiene provides immediate payoffs as
well. The single best thing I have done for my health was giving myself the
gift of a regular sleep schedule and sticking to it. I perform better in every
aspect of my life. Even if I feel like I have less time than I did before, I
feel much better every day than I did when I was getting < 7 hours of sleep
every day.

~~~
bulldoa
I am curious, what is consider good sleep hygiene academic wise.

~~~
flocial
In a nutshell setting aside 8 hours, going to sleep and waking at the same
time even on weekends and holidays, refrain from stimulants and depressants 8
hours before bed.

Recommended reading: Why We Sleep

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DiabloD3
There is an awful lot of "might" in that article.

Not disagreeing with it on face value, mind you, but the actual research
basically states that you can't just start exercising... you have to already
been exercising (and not even all that much, like, ~5000 steps ~= 2 miles a
day, some HIIT (less is more) + low rep heavy weight lifting one or twice a
week) benefit from this.

So, all of us who are in our 30s now? The time is now.

Also, re: weight lifting, try to target all of your muscle groups right. Don't
be the guy who skips leg day, don't be the guy who has a shitty core and is
trying to squat 250+. Guys like Jeff Cavaliere are who to look at on how to do
this right.

~~~
bad_user
If you’re in your 30s a much better bet for your overall health and for
keeping Alzheimer’s away is giving up on sugar, since there’s a strong link
between Alzheimer’s and insulin resistance.

Exercise too does help a little with insulin resistance (but not enough to
repair the damage done by a diet high in sugar), plus people that exercise
tend to also eat healthy.

~~~
mg74
This.

STOP EATING SUGAR PEOPLE!

~~~
DamnInteresting
> STOP EATING SUGAR PEOPLE!

But sugar people are delicious! They're such sweethearts.

~~~
overcast
Sour Patch Kids for life <3

------
_zskd
I recently joined a gym ( industrialstrengthgym.com/ ). It has an emphasis on
having a welcoming atmosphere and community.

When they asked me during orientation what my goals were, I said "Show up
three times a week. I need to grow up, it is time to work out."

And that really is how I feel about the matter.

If you listen to Tim Ferriss' interviews and read his interview books ( Tribe
of Mentors, Tools of Titans ), you will notice a pattern: MANY of these highly
effective people MAKE time to have intense work-out sessions.

All of the research and knowledge we currently have about human health and
successful aging points to regular weight training and cardio training as the
secret sauce for having a healthy mind and body as you age.

Going to the gym and working out isn't about having a hobby or enjoying it.
It's about being an adult and taking care of yourself.

So grow up. Get to the gym.

Disclosure: I am a member of the gym I mentioned above but have no other
affiliation with the gym.

------
shaboi
For what it's worth -- an anecdotal as tentative counterpoint: my mentor in my
teenage years, an academic and just an excellent man, was an avid cyclist with
a diet that supported said hobby. To the extent that he rode daily and would
cycle from around lake Michigan every other year. He repaired and built ham
radios in his basement, next to his de facto bike repair shop. He was a
socialite and happily married. This is how he spent his days.

Yet he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at 72, six months after mild symptoms
started appearing. He passed less than two years later, and his personality &
mind a year before that.

Just six years before that he was detailing vector calculus proofs with me at
his dinner table.

I try not to be too cynical but I just can't help thinking of him and his
bitter end when reading about these albeit preventative measures.

~~~
joewee
Is it possible the onset would have been earlier without the lifestyle? 72 is
late, isn’t it?

~~~
coolbeanboi223
Depends on who is talking, my grandfather ate healthy and exercised nearly his
entire life and lived to be 96 before he started getting Alzheimer's and died
a few years later.

I think most people would consider my grandfather to be a near optimal outcome
in terms of lifespan and keeping your mind nearly intact until you are very
very old. The number you are citing isn't even average lifespan in US for
instance (78 currently). If you take out most of the things which are out of
our control from that average, or things which cause disproportionate amounts
of negative entropy on your body and recalculate it (things like homicide,
suicide, accidental death, people who smoke profusely, people who drink to
excess, people with severe mental health issues, etc etc) the number is much
much higher.

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lev99
No matter what disease you are worried about, it seems like you need to follow
the same advice in your day to day life: eat better, smoke less, drink less,
exercise more, sleep appropriately.

~~~
abledon
Don’t exercise too much. You wanna take the car out to have the motor running
every once in a while but if your driving 200km/h everyday the engine is going
to wear out prematurely

~~~
manmal
Indeed, overtraining is bad for you in all aspects, it even hampers training
progress - it’s really good for nothing. I heard that you can avoid
overtraining by keeping an eye on heart rate variability - if that is low, you
are either over-stressed or overstrained, and should tread lighter. Some
fitness trackers can measure HRV.

~~~
Bartweiss
One thing I've been concerned with lately is the tradeoff between systems that
strengthen with training and systems that degrade with use.

Most of my favorite forms of exercise (climbing, hiking, running) are pretty
hard on my joints, along with several other risks like shin splints and pulley
injuries. I know there's some capacity to strengthen tendons and ligaments,
but I can't find decent data on what tradeoffs I'm making at what levels of
activity. Replacing everything I do with swimming and intermediate-rep weight
training would almost certainly offer a better tradeoff, but I want to at
least work out what price I'm paying.

~~~
Retric
Their are workouts that strengthen joints up to a point and significantly
reduce injuries. The trade off is you need to specifically focus on them and
their are a lot of at risk joints.

More important in many ways is knowing what pain is a sign to immediately
stop, and take time off to recover from. Taking a week or two off now can
prevent significant long term issues.

~~~
abledon
Which is difficult for type a personalities !

------
escherplex
Seems that brain physiology and health don't live in isolation but are
integrally linked with aggregate body muscular physiology. In a _Frontiers in
Neurology_ report [1] a prolonged sedentary lifestyle (mouse model) resulted
in a 70 pct reduction in neural stem cells compared to a free roaming control
group. Specifically, leg-loading exercises (weights) result in the
transmission of neurological signals which catalyze generation of healthy
nerve cells. A summary of the first technical article appeared in _Frontiers
Blog_ [2] if interested.

[1] _Reduction of Movement in Neurological Diseases: Effects on Neural Stem
Cells Characteristics_

[https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.0033...](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.00336/full?utm_source=G-BLO&utm_medium=WEXT&utm_campaign=ECO_FNINS_20180607_leg-
exercise)

[2] _Leg exercise is critical to brain and nervous system health_

[https://blog.frontiersin.org/2018/06/07/neuroscience-leg-
exe...](https://blog.frontiersin.org/2018/06/07/neuroscience-leg-exercise-
brain-nervous-system-health/)

------
lymeeducator1
Regular exercise with elevated heart rate improve circulatory health (vascular
and lymphatic). Low carbohydrate real, organic foods improve vascular function
and prevent insulin resistance in the organs. Fasting performs cellular
cleanup in all portions of the body.

Our planet and thus our bodies are highly populated with viruses and bacteria.
Our body is the best healthcare system we have and works continually to
eliminate or quarantine harmful pathogens like Borellia (Lyme), Bartonella,
Babesia, Erlichia, Chlamydia, malaria, epstein-barr, herpes, etc. The
quarantined pathogens (from biofilms, bacterial starvation forms, etc) often
reproduce during immune suppression and over time propagate across the body.
Many of the 'deposits' in Alzheimers are composed of quarantined pathogens
(lyme, chlamydia, etc) and fasting + diet + exercise can help minimize those.

Personal experience here: Incidentally, the non-Hodgkins Lymphoma symptoms of
Wikipedia very strongly parallel Bartonella and Babesia symptoms. The immune
suppression from those often raises viral antibodies to things like Epstein-
Barr. Cultural/native medicines lacked microbiology, but had a much better
understanding of the body as a whole just from visible physical and patient
reported symptoms than most western medicine practice today. Most pathogen
testing is poor due to low blood/urine density and most doctors are
authoritatively ignorant and refuse to look at other markers like TNF-a,
TGF-b, C3a, C4a, etc blood tests.

Steven Buhner has written a number of scientifically and medicinally based
books on the bacterial/parasitic pathogens (he has a ton of references from
China, Korea, Russia, Germany, India, and the US).

~~~
___alt
> organic foods improve vascular function and prevent insulin resistance in
> the organs

This is bullshit.

> Many of the 'deposits' in Alzheimers are composed of quarantined pathogens
> (lyme, chlamydia, etc) and fasting + diet + exercise can help minimize
> those.

This is also bullshit.

> Steven Buhner

He's a well-known crackpot.

~~~
lymeeducator1
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2949767/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2949767/)
and there is another study that I don't have the link to where autopsies on
100 Alzheimer brains showed a mix of spirochetes, chlamydia, etc in the
deposits.

Buhner protocols have helped many tens of thousands of people with tick borne
diseases and is widely used by a number of lyme specialists throughout the
world.

If you feel healthier eating processed food containing higher levels of
pesticides, herbicides, etc then please continue to consume them. Be the
center of your own black hole.

------
hwillis
My Opa is struggling right now- mid 80s, thinking is getting very fuzzy, and
he isn't exercising the parts (back) he needs to. It's causing his body to
break down. The cartilage and disks in his ribcage and spine are collapsing,
forcing him to hunch deeply (accelerating the degeneration) and crushing his
lungs. If he had kept his back strong, it would have kept the stress off his
tissues for decades. He would still be losing his sight, smell, and taste
(horrible, for a chef), but maybe he would be less fuzzy.

My Opa is also the most hardcore motherfucker I've ever met. It's not that he
didn't exercise. He _still_ heaves around 80 lb bags of sand, he's building a
goddamn cottage almost by himself, he's still almost immune to pain. He's the
toughest man I know, and even on the days he has trouble with fairly basic
spatial tasks he can multiply three digit numbers in his head faster than I
can write them down. His short term memory is still better than mine. He's
still smarter than me. He's so stubborn he keeps falling off ladders every
week because despite how much he has lost he just refuses. to. give. up.

I can't understate how fucking scary it all is. The man is unstoppable when he
puts his mind to something. Time has not worn down his will even a tiny bit.
He breaks bones more often now, but he shakes it off, does the PT, and it's
like it never happened. But even that isn't enough when age decides to take
you. If your spine wilts, all the exercise and work in the world will not save
you. When you can't sleep more than two hours at a time, what do you do? You
can't force yourself to sleep. You just slowly go nuts, a little more each
day.

Aging is the real process of senescence, not just of getting older. Dementia,
weakness, and frailty all seem increasingly like symptoms of a larger
bodily/immune system degeneration. The inability to exercise, the constant
pain, the _constant_ sleep deprivation- those things could give dementia to a
young man too. You can stave off the bodily decay _until_ you start aging, but
not after. Some lucky few, the Jeanne Calments[1], seem to be basically immune
to senescence. They follow the path you'd expect, of a body slowly wearing
out. The rest of us eventually hit a point where our bodies suddenly start to
break down, and things like exercise just no longer produce the same changes
they used to. The systems that handle growth, repair, immune responses- they
just stop.

I'm sorry if this is bleak, but it hurts to see him like this. I just spent a
couple months helping him put up siding. He wants to finish that cottage so
much. I hope it's not his swan song.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment)

~~~
madeuptempacct
"he can multiply three digit numbers in his head faster than I can write them
down"

As in e.g. 365 * 128? Or 365 * 8? The latter is realistic, the former is a bit
unbelievable. Even the latter is a violation of the "magic 7"[0].

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two)

~~~
simias
That's a trivial detail of the parent's anecdote which may or may not have
been exaggerated for narrative purposes and completely tangential to the point
they were making. Given the subject matter it's pointless and a frankly bit
insensitive to nitpick that IMO.

~~~
madeuptempacct
I am really interested in measuring working memory and how it relates to IQ,
hence the details.

I admit to not taking emotions into consideration here.

~~~
Ensorceled
If you actually were interested, you would have asked for details rather than
simply attacking the anecdote as implausible.

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thecatspaw
@OP: where do you find all your links that you submit?

Are you just submitting your RSS feed here?

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tim333
>there have been traces of evidence for exercise playing a preventative role
in Alzheimer’s disease

It seems quite a weak correlation compared with the story 3 months ago
"Alzheimer's risk 10 times lower with herpes medication"
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17540094](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17540094)

Maybe healthier / exercising people are better able to deal with viruses?

------
emgee_1
I do not know About exercise; there are other options too: fasting for several
days ( 4-5) ; Your body will produce ketones as fuel for your brain and growth
hormone will also be produced; both can be used to repair your brain. It is
free and from ancient traditions

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buckthundaz
Am I wrong to be frustrated with the way this is phrased. I think something to
the effect of, "Lack of exercise pollutes brain and promotes degeneration." is
more informative of the finding.

Similar to "Time in nature heals you"...

------
dawhizkid
I thought autophagy was what "cleans" the brain i.e. fasting or keto.

~~~
lymeeducator1
It is and it does. Water fasting is the quickest way to trigger autophagy.
Depending on the person this will start around 12 - 18 hours of no caloric
intake.

------
tbabb
Buried lede: Major pharmaceuticals are giving up on Alzheimer's research...?!

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modzu
why is this pop-science trash at the top of the front page???

~~~
rich_ard
Reading the comments, might be because of the lack of literacy on this topic
in this venue

~~~
simias
Then do educate us instead of posting passive-aggressive comments! This is
hacker news, not biohacker news, it's not really surprising that most people
here (including myself) are not very knowledgeable on the subject.

~~~
Ensorceled
Raising literacy on a topic is beyond the scope a post on HN but observing
that it is low is not.

------
narrator
How about healthy people can do exercise while people with the early symptoms
of Alzheimer's are kind of bad at it, but they just need to try harder and
have their Medicare to pay people to help them flail around a little more
gracefully and when their disease progresses we can just blame them for their
disease because of their lack of exercise even though it's a bit hard for them
to remember to exercise at that point.

