Bodybuilder's Diet Secret Against Alzheimer's Disease

Research reveals that a muscle-building supplement may help battle Alzheimer's by protecting memory.

Common supplements in bodybuilder diets could safeguard memory, decrease plaques, and potentially halt the advancement of Alzheimer's disease as per RUSH researchers ().

A Promising Memory Shield

HMB is not a prescription drug or a steroid, but an over-the-counter supplement that is available in sports and fitness stores. Bodybuilders regularly use HMB to increase exercise-induced gains in muscle size and strength while improving exercise performance. HMB is considered safe even after long-term use, with no known side effects.

“This may be one of the safest and the easiest approaches to halt disease progression and protect memory in Alzheimer’s disease patients,” said Kalipada Pahan, Ph.D., the Floyd A. Davis, MD, Professor of Neurology and professor of neurological sciences, biochemistry, and pharmacology at RUSH Medical College.

Risk Factors for Alzheimers Disease
Cognitively normal adults exhibiting atrophy of their temporal lobe or damage to blood vessels in the brain are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

‘Bodybuilders' dietary staple may hold the key to memory protection as a study shows that a muscle-building supplement — beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) may combat Alzheimer's by reducing plaques and preserving memory. # Alzheimer's Disease, #Memory, Bodybuilder's Diet ’

Studies in mice with Alzheimer’s disease have shown that HMB successfully reduces plaques and increases factors for neuronal growth to protect learning and memory, according to neurological researchers at RUSH.

“Understanding how the disease works is important to developing effective drugs to protect the brain and stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease,” Pahan said.

Previous studies indicate that a family of proteins known as neurotrophic factors are drastically decreased in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease and have been found to help in the survival and function of neurons, which are cells that receive and send messages from the body to the brain and vice versa.

Hope in Plaque Reduction

“Our study found that after oral consumption, HMB enters into the brain to increase these beneficial proteins, restore neuronal connections and improve memory and learning in mice with Alzheimer’s-like pathology, such as plaques and tangles,” Pahan said.

Sexuality Among People With Dementia and Other Cognitive Problems
Women with lower cognitive scores were less likely than men with lower cognitive scores to have intimate partners, found study.

The study findings indicate that HMB stimulates a nuclear hormone receptor called PPARα within the brain that regulates the transport of fatty acids, which is key to the success of HMB as a neuroprotective supplement.

“If mouse results with HMB are replicated in Alzheimer’s disease patients, it would open up a promising avenue of treatment of this devastating neurodegenerative disease,” Pahan said.

Cardiac Cycle Modulates Learning
The activity of the cardiorespiratory neurons in the brain stem affects the overall neural state of the hippocampus and thus the neural processing of the external information.

Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, even the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. In most people with Alzheimer's, symptoms first appear after age 60.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia among older people, affecting as many as 6 million Americans and more than 10% of people aged 65 and older. About two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease are women.

Results from the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, were recently published in the Cell Reports.

Reference:

Muscle-building supplement β-hydroxy β-methylbutyrate binds to PPARα to improve hippocampal functions in mice - (https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(23)00728-3)

Source-Eurekalert