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Western exercise study targets hypertension and cognitive decline

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Two Western University researchers with a personal connection to dementia are thinking beyond the brain when it comes to staving off the degenerative disease, looking at potential links between high blood pressure, high-intensity exercise and cognitive health in a new study.

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Kinesiology doctoral candidate Narlon Boa Sorte Silva and Western University family medicine professor Robert Petrella are looking for 140 people 55 years and older willing to hop on a stationary bicycle for their upcoming study.

Participants will do group cycling classes three times a week at locations in London. One group will do intense pedalling, tailored to their heart rate, for four minute intervals before resting for three. They’ll complete the cycle four times.

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Other study participants will steadily pedal at a moderate pace for 25 minutes.

All of the study participants will fire up their brain cells with 15 minutes of mind-motor training beforehand with a grid-stepping activity that requires a bit of co-ordination and brain power to complete.

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Researchers will track the blood pressure and cognitive function of their study subjects. They want to see if high-intensity, short-interval training has more of an impact on blood pressure and cognition than a moderate-paced exercise regime.

“People know you go out so many times a week and you do a certain intensity and it’s good for you,” Petrella said. “But we’re really interested in something a bit more than that, and that’s what the beauty of this study is, really looking at whether a higher-order of exercise, more intense exercise, might get a better effect in terms of blood pressure and cognition.”

Petrella and Boa Sorte Silva have received nearly $300,000 in funding from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada for the two-year study. The team is recruiting participants  and is set to begin the first round of trials in February.

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They’re looking for men and women 55 years and older who have high blood pressure, including people who are on medication for the condition. People with mild cognitive impairment also are encouraged to participate.

Dementia affects more than a half-million Canadians. In 15 years, nearly one million Canadians will be living with the disease.

For Petrella and Boa Sorte Silva, the quest isn’t just professional, it’s personal. Petrella’s father has dementia. Boa Sorte Silva’s grandmother suffers from the disease, too.

“That creates a space in your mind to deeply reflect,” Boa Sorte Silva said. “We try to do our best as scientists, but what drives us is the passion to do something.”

High blood pressure is one of the most common chronic conditions in Canada, affecting as many as one in four adults.

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Certain health conditions – like Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure – increase the risk of developing dementia, Boa Sorte Silva said. Exercise can improve both conditions and may be a key to staving off cognitive decline.

“By becoming more physically active, you tend to reduce the risk of other diseases that add to dementia risk,” Boa Sorte Silva said. “When we do studies with exercise, we are indirectly targeting those.”

But motivating people to get moving isn’t always easy, Petrella said. Depending on the results of the study, high-intensity, short-interval activities could prove to be an attractive exercise option for the aging population.

“With high-intensity training, there’s a possibility that we do more exercise, in terms of what we get, in a shorter period of time,” Petrella said. “If we get those results we can say ‘This is another option for people to consider.’”

jbieman@postmedia.com

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