Ronald Lazar, PhD, FAHA, FAAN, Director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Pamela Bowen, PhD, CRNP, FNP-BC, BBA, Associate Professor, UAB recently received funding for a new pilot project aiming to demonstrate that exercise directly impacts cardiorespiratory fitness and has a broader effect across other risk factors, thus improving overall brain health. The project is co-funded by the McCance Brain Care Center at Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard) and the McKnight Brain Institute at UAB.
With longitudinal and cross-sectional studies demonstrating the association between increasing age and cognitive decline, there is increasing belief that proactive attention to vascular risk factors and lifestyle behaviors can have significant benefit in mitigating cognitive loss.
With the pilot project, the project investigators aim to obtain preliminary data to demonstrate that exercise represents both a direct impact on cardiorespiratory fitness and also results in a broader effect across other risk factors, thus improving overall brain health. The study’s primary outcome measure will be the McCance Brain Care Score (BCS), a multi-dimensional care tracker made up of three categories – physical, lifestyle and social emotional – allowing people to take better care of their brain health throughout life.
Leveraging the UAB Brain Health Mission (BHAM) across three primary care clinics, patients with hypertension and a body mass index ≥ 25 kg/m2, will be enrolled, asked to calculate their BCS and select from the risk factors the BCS identifies as lacking. The individuals who select exercise as a lifestyle target will then be enrolled in BHAM.
The scientific premise is that exercise promotes vascularization by increasing growth factors, which will at the same time reduce hypertension. Previous evidence suggests in people with obesity, exercise independently reduces the effect of diabetes and hypercholesterolemia, promotes sleep hygiene, and reduces stress. With this study, the pilot investigators aim to prove that exercise will improve the individual’s overall BCS metric. The vascular density biomarker will be obtained with non-invasive, retinal scanning using Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography.
