[Effect of physical exercise on Alzheimer's disease. A sistematic review].

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this review is to analyze through a the scientific evidence about the effects of physical activity in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) as a preventive and non-pharmacological treatment.

DESIGN

Systematic review.

DATA SOURCES

We have identified articles from Pubmed, Science Direct, Medline and Scopus databases, with the keywords Alzheimer, Exercise, Neuroimaging, MRI, PET y Physical Activity. Selected articles: We included those studies that evaluated the effects of physical activity on Alzheimer's disease and those which also included magnetic resonance imaging or positron emission tomography with Pittsburg Compound B marker (PiB) analyzing brain atrophy or increase of the beta-amyloid deposit respectively. We excluded studies including other types of dementia, different of AD. We also excluded articles which not included neuroimaging tests, single cases or non-English language articles.

DATA EXTRACTION

The PRISMA quality scale was used for the critical lecture of the studies. The researchers independently assessed the articles and the discrepancies were resolved by consensus.

RESULTS

We identified 75 articles, of which 23 were finally included in the review.

CONCLUSIONS

Most of the studies included do not allow us to know the impact of physical exercise on cognition and the cerebral structural-functional changes in patients at risk of developing AD or in patients who already have the disease. Without being able to rule out a possible beneficial effect, more studies are needed with a better design and methodological rigor that allows a better known about this association.