6 minutes of HIIT may help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

In a crossover trial, the research team studied 12 fit and healthy participants, ages 18 to 56. Half of the participants were women, all had a BMI of less than 25 and all engaged in regular physical activity.

People with chronic illnesses and on daily medication were excluded from the trial.

The participants all underwent 4 different study diets:

• a 20 hour fast
• 90-minute low-intensity cycling calculated at 25% of participant’s maximal oxygen uptake
• 6-minute high-intensity cycling calculated at 100% of the participant’s maximal oxygen consumption
• a combination of exercise and fasting

Blood samples were taken throughout the trial at specific times to measure the amount of BDNF, glucose, insulin and ketone body beta-hydroxybutyrate along with the platelet count.

The research team found a 9-fold increase in the availability of ketone bodies after the 20-hour fast, but this was not related to a noticeable change in BDNF levels.

In contrast, after 90 minutes of light cycling, serum BDNF increased by up to 14% whether the participant was fasting or not. The research team associated the increase with up to a 13% increase in blood platelets.

High-intensity cycling for 6 minutes increased the amount of circulating BDNF up to 5 times more than longer sessions of low-intensity cycling.

The increase was linked to a 6-fold increase in lactate levels, regardless of how fast the participants were. An increase in lactate level was not evident during low intensity exercise.

The research team also found that exercise increased the number of circulating platelets by 20%, to which they concluded that exercise had a greater impact on platelet counts than fasting.

Medical News Today spoke with the first author of the study Travis Gibbonson the importance of the type of exercise in this study.

He explained that “[…] any type of exercise is perfectly acceptable as long as the intensity can be high enough to produce lactate. The intensity required to do so is relative to each individual.

He went on to say that study participants worked hard but not at their maximum work rate. His simplest suggestion to anyone looking to achieve similar results was to “go all out for 20 to 40 [seconds].”

“[P]People have a pretty good sense of timing and will pick an intensity that they think can be sustained for at least that amount of time,” he noted.

“I love seeing data that encourages people to actively live outdoors. The answer to many modern (Westernized) health issues lies just beyond our doorstep. It is becoming increasingly clear that the simply getting up and going throughout aging is a much simpler, more efficient and fair way to maintain ‘health’, as opposed to finding cures for disease,” Gibbons explained.

Dr. Ryan Glatta personal trainer and brain health coach for the Pacific Neuroscience Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., who was not involved in the study, echoed Gibbons.

“[M]Most people with or without cognitive decline may not have the optimal “exercise prescription” for their brain health, which is where an opportunity exists to fill this gap in clinical practice.
— Dr. Ryan Glatt

“[…] this study, […] is of interest for furthering our understanding of how exercise variables, such as intensity and duration, in combination with eating behaviors, can affect elements of brain health such as BDNF expression,” said said Dr. Glatt. DTM.

“The most interesting part of this study is the combined and separate arms of fasting and exercise, which is important because individuals typically ask themselves what they can do in multiple areas of their lifestyle to improve health. brain health, not just a lifestyle area such as diet,” he continued.

“[I]It is relevant that people develop lifestyles that prioritize brain health before neurodegeneration becomes symptomatic.
— Travis Gibbons, study author

The study is limited by its small sample size and lack of a control group.

“[T]his study creates more questions than it answers due to its low statistical power and multimodal study design,” Dr. Glatt commented.

The authors argue, however, that exercise is “an accessible, affordable, effective, and equitable intervention” that can be easily incorporated into daily life.

“Another question may be what is the significance of BDNF expression in the context of this study, as cognition or other aspects of brain function were not measured.[…]added Dr. Glatt.

He stressed that future research should focus on “the magnitude of these benefits, the types of benefits that exist (cognitive function, brain function or structure, or mood), and the duration of these benefits.”

The next step in this work is to understand whether combining exercise and fasting modifies the neuroprotective effects.

“This will further inform strategies on the ideal ‘timing’ of exercise to achieve the best stimulus for brain-specific adaptations,” Gibbons noted.

The team also wants to understand how exercise affects blood in the brain and is working on research that will allow them to draw blood from the brain during exercise.

“So far, we’re seeing that the blood in our brain is actually quite different from the blood in the rest of our circulation,” Gibbons said.