Laboratory of NeuroGenetics, Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA.
Geroscience. 2020 Oct;42(5):1285-1306. doi: 10.1007/s11357-020-00244-7. Epub 2020 Aug 7.
An aging global population and accompanying increases in the prevalence of age-related disorders are leading to greater financial, social, and health burdens. Aging-related dementias are one such category of age-related disorders that are associated with progressive loss of physical and cognitive integrity. One proposed preventative measure against risk of aging-related dementia is improving cardiovascular fitness, which may help reverse or buffer age-related brain atrophy associated with worse aging-related outcomes and cognitive decline. However, research into the beneficial potential of cardiovascular fitness has suffered from extreme heterogeneity in study design methodology leading to a lack of cohesion in the field and undermining any potential causal evidence that may exist. In addition, cardiovascular fitness and exercise are often conflated, leading to a lack of clarity in results. Here, I review recent literature on cardiovascular fitness, brain structure, and aging with the following goals: (a) to disentangle and lay out recent findings specific to aging, cardiovascular fitness, and brain structure, and (b) to ascertain the extent to which causal evidence actually exists. I suggest that, while there is some preliminary evidence for a link between cardiovascular fitness and brain structure in older adults, more research is still needed before definitive causal conclusions can be drawn. I conclude with a discussion of existing gaps in the field and suggestions for how they may be addressed by future research.
人口老龄化以及随之而来的与年龄相关的疾病患病率的增加，导致了更大的财政、社会和健康负担。与年龄相关的痴呆症就是与年龄相关的疾病的一种，它与身体和认知功能的逐渐丧失有关。预防与年龄相关的痴呆症的一种方法是提高心血管健康水平，这可能有助于逆转或缓冲与较差的与年龄相关的结果和认知能力下降相关的与年龄相关的脑萎缩。然而，由于研究设计方法的极端异质性，心血管健康的有益潜力研究一直存在问题，导致该领域缺乏凝聚力，破坏了可能存在的任何潜在的因果证据。此外，心血管健康和运动经常被混淆，导致结果不明确。在这里，我回顾了最近关于心血管健康、大脑结构和衰老的文献，目的如下：(a) 梳理和阐述与衰老、心血管健康和大脑结构相关的最新发现，以及 (b) 确定实际上存在的因果证据的程度。我认为，虽然有一些初步证据表明，在老年人中，心血管健康与大脑结构之间存在联系，但在得出明确的因果结论之前，仍需要更多的研究。最后，我讨论了该领域现有的差距，并提出了如何通过未来的研究来解决这些差距的建议。
