Alzheimer's Disease: Physical Activities as an Effective Intervention Tool - A Mini-Review

Abstract

Background: There are a few risk factors which definitely have an impact on the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Those include genetics, gender, age, diabetes, head injuries, and lifestyle. Physical activity together with a healthy diet is part of people's lifestyle. At present, there exist several research studies showing that the physical activities can be a good intervention tool in the delay of cognitive decline in AD.

Objective: The aim of this study is to discuss a relationship between the physical activities and the delay and/or maintenance of cognitive decline in AD and the types of physical activities which are especially suitable for this delay.

Methods: The method of this review study consists of a method of literature review analysing the data contained in the world's prestigious scientific databases: PubMed, Springer, Web of Science and Scopus in the period of 2010 - 2015. In addition, a method of comparison of different research studies discussing various aspects and factors of the correlation of physical activities and AD is used.

Results: The findings of this review confirm that in most cases, physical activities have a positive effect on the improvement of cognitive decline in AD.

Conclusion: Although physical activities seem to be beneficial for people with AD, more convincing results, particularly in the area of specific types of exercises and their impact on slowing down the cognitive decline, respectively AD, are needed.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; cognitive decline; improvement; intervention; review; sports activities..