Does air pollution reduce the benefits of physical activity on the
brain?

Date:
December 8, 2021
Source:
American Academy of Neurology
Summary:
A new study shows that people who do vigorous physical activities,
like jogging or playing competitive sports, in areas with higher
air pollution may show less benefit from that exercise when it
comes to certain markers of brain disease. The markers examined in
the study included white matter hyperintensities, which indicate
injury to the brain's white matter, and gray matter volume. Larger
gray matter volumes and smaller white matter hyperintensity volumes
are markers of overall better brain health.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study shows that people who do vigorous physical activities,
like jogging or playing competitive sports, in areas with higher air
pollution may show less benefit from that exercise when it comes to
certain markers of brain disease.

The markers examined in the study included white matter hyperintensities,
which indicate injury to the brain's white matter, and gray matter
volume. Larger gray matter volumes and smaller white matter hyperintensity volumes are markers of overall better brain health. The research is
published in the December 8, 2021, online issue of Neurology(R), the
medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.


========================================================================== "Vigorous exercise may increase exposure to air pollution and prior
studies have shown adverse effects of air pollution on the brain,"
said study author Melissa Furlong, PhD, of the University of Arizona in
Tucson. "We did show that physical activity is associated with improved
markers of brain health in areas with lower air pollution. However,
some beneficial effects essentially disappeared for vigorous physical
activity in areas with the highest levels of air pollution. That's not to
say people should avoid exercise. Overall, the effect of air pollution on
brain health was modest -- roughly equivalent to half the effect of one
year of aging, while the effects of vigorous activity on brain health were
much larger -- approximately equivalent to being three years younger."
The study looked at 8,600 people with an average age of 56 from the UK
Biobank, a large biomedical database. People's exposure to pollution,
including nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, which are particles
of liquids or solids suspended in the air, was estimated with land use regression. A land use regression study models air pollution levels based
on air monitors and land use characteristics like traffic, agriculture
and industrial sources of air pollution.

Participants' air pollution exposures were categorized into four equal
groups, from lowest air pollution to highest.

Each person's physical activity was measured for one week with a movement- detecting device they wore called an accelerometer. Then researchers characterized their physical activity patterns depending on how much
vigorous physical activity they got, ranging from none to 30 minutes or
more per week.

People who got the greatest amounts of vigorous physical activity
each week, on average, had 800 cm3 gray matter volume, compared
to an average of 790 cm3gray matter volume in people who did not
get any vigorous exercise. Researchers showed that air pollution
exposures did not alter the effects of physical activity on gray matter
volume. However, researchers did find air pollution exposures altered
the effects of vigorous physical activity when looking at white matter hyperintensities. After adjusting for age, sex and other covariates, researchers found that vigorous physical activity reduced white matter hyperintensities in areas of low air pollution, but these benefits were
not found among those in high air pollution areas.

"More research is needed, but if our findings are replicated, public
policy could be used to address people's exposure to air pollution during exercise," Furlong said. "For example, since a significant amount of
air pollution comes from traffic, promoting running or bicycling along
paths far from heavy traffic may be more beneficial." A limitation
of the study is that it used air pollution values from one year only,
and levels may vary from year to year.

The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Arizona Department of
Health Services, and the McKnight Brain Research Foundation. The study
used data made available by the UK Biobank.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Academy_of_Neurology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Melissa A. Furlong, Gene E. Alexander, Yann C. Klimentidis, David A.

Raichlen. Association of Air Pollution and Physical Activity With
Brain Volumes. Neurology, 2021; 10.1212/WNL.0000000000013031 DOI:
10.1212/ WNL.0000000000013031 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211208161118.htm

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