How is your doctor testing and making sure your BDNF is adequate?
http://dgnews.docguide.com/growth-factor-brain-tied-slower-mental-decline?
Older people with higher amounts of brain-derived neurotrophic factor
(BDNF) also had slower decline in their memory and thinking abilities
than people with lower amounts of the protein, according to a study
published in the January 27, 2016, online edition of the journal
Neurology.
“This relationship was strongest among the people with the most signs
of Alzheimer’s disease pathology in their brains,” said Aron S.
Buchman, MD, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois. “This
suggests that a higher level of protein from BDNF gene expression may
provide a buffer, or reserve, for the brain and protect it against the
effects of the plaques and tangles that form in the brain as a part of
Alzheimer’s disease.”
For the study, 535 people with an average age of 81 years were
followed until death, for an average of 6 years. They took yearly tests
of their thinking and memory skills, and after death, a neurologist
reviewed their records and determined whether they had dementia, mild
cognitive impairment (MCI) or no thinking and memory problems.
Autopsies were conducted on their brains after death, and the amount
of protein from BDNF gene expression in the brain was then measured. The
participants were part of the Rush Memory and Aging Project and the
Religious Orders Study.
The rate of cognitive decline was about 50% slower for those in the
highest 10% of protein from BDNF gene expression compared with the
lowest 10%. The effect of plaques and tangles in the brain on cognitive
decline was reduced for people with high levels of BDNF. In the people
with the highest amount of Alzheimer’s disease hallmarks in their
brains, cognitive decline was about 40% slower for people with the
highest amount of protein from BDNF gene expression compared with those
with the lowest amount.
On average, thinking and memory skills declined by about 0.10 units
per year on the tests. Higher levels of protein from BDNF gene
expression reduced the effect of plaques and tangles in the brain on
cognitive decline by 0.02 units per year.
The researchers found that the plaques and tangles in the brain
accounted for 27% of the variation in cognitive decline, demographics
accounted for 3%, and BDNF accounted for 2%.
“More research is needed to confirm these findings, determine how
this relationship between protein produced by BDNF gene expression and
cognitive decline works and see if any strategies can be used to
increase BDNF in the brain to protect or slow the rate of cognitive
decline,” said Dr. Buchman.
He noted that the study does not prove that BDNF is the cause of a
slower rate of cognitive decline; further work is needed to determine if
activities which increase brain BDNF gene expression levels protect or
slow the rate of cognitive decline in old age.
In an accompanying editorial, Michal Schnaider Beeri, PhD, Icahn
School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, noted that
exercise has been shown to increase levels of BDNF in the blood, but
that the relationship between BDNF protein levels in the blood and in
the brain is not clear.
SOURCE: American Academy of Neurology
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