Cardiovascular fitness and structural brain integrity: an update on current evidence

d’Arbeloff, Tracy

doi:10.1007/s11357-020-00244-7

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 117 publications

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“…Our discovery of associations between white matter integrity and cardiovascular fitness but not healthy lifestyle behaviors is consistent with research on exercise and structural integrity of the brain (Sexton et al, 2016 ; d'Arbeloff, 2020 ). Prior clinical trials have found that exercise interventions targeting age-related structural decline in gray matter only show positive results if the participants' cardiovascular fitness improved (d'Arbeloff, 2020 ). Similar findings have been reported in studies targeting white matter (Sexton et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Similar findings have been reported in studies targeting white matter (Sexton et al, 2016 ). Thus, targeting improvements in healthy lifestyle behaviors to slow or prevent aging-related brain atrophy may not be effective if the interventions do not result in improved physiological fitness (d'Arbeloff, 2020 ). Moreover, links between gray matter and fitness emerged in prior studies regardless of the experimental condition suggesting that general improvement in cardiovascular fitness may have benefits for the brain (d'Arbeloff, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, targeting improvements in healthy lifestyle behaviors to slow or prevent aging-related brain atrophy may not be effective if the interventions do not result in improved physiological fitness (d'Arbeloff, 2020 ). Moreover, links between gray matter and fitness emerged in prior studies regardless of the experimental condition suggesting that general improvement in cardiovascular fitness may have benefits for the brain (d'Arbeloff, 2020 ). Further research could help elucidate this pattern and help identify both the level of activity necessary to improve cardiovascular fitness and the threshold at which improvements in cardiovascular fitness may manifest in the brain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another possible reason for the observed mixed results could be the conflation of cardiovascular fitness with healthy lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity. Lifestyle interventions designed to improve cardiovascular fitness often do so indirectly, such as by increasing physical activity (Sexton et al, 2016 ; Wassenaar et al, 2019 ; d'Arbeloff, 2020 ). However, increasing healthy lifestyle behaviors is not necessarily correlated with improved cardiovascular fitness (d'Arbeloff, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lifestyle interventions designed to improve cardiovascular fitness often do so indirectly, such as by increasing physical activity (Sexton et al, 2016 ; Wassenaar et al, 2019 ; d'Arbeloff, 2020 ). However, increasing healthy lifestyle behaviors is not necessarily correlated with improved cardiovascular fitness (d'Arbeloff, 2020 ). Thus, prior studies using self-report measures of healthy lifestyle behaviors as a proxy for cardiovascular fitness when examining associations with white matter structural integrity may have yielded different results from studies using direct measures of cardiovascular fitness (Sexton et al, 2016 ; d'Arbeloff, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Midlife Cardiovascular Fitness Is Reflected in the Brain's White Matter

d’Arbeloff

Elliott

Knodt

et al. 2021

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Disappointing results from clinical trials designed to delay structural brain decline and the accompanying increase in risk for dementia in older adults have precipitated a shift in testing promising interventions from late in life toward midlife before irreversible damage has accumulated. This shift, however, requires targeting midlife biomarkers that are associated with clinical changes manifesting only in late life. Here we explored possible links between one putative biomarker, distributed integrity of brain white matter, and two intervention targets, cardiovascular fitness and healthy lifestyle behaviors, in midlife. At age 45, fractional anisotropy (FA) derived from diffusion weighted MRI was used to estimate the microstructural integrity of distributed white matter tracts in a population-representative birth cohort. Age-45 cardiovascular fitness (VO2Max; N = 801) was estimated from heart rates obtained during submaximal exercise tests; age-45 healthy lifestyle behaviors were estimated using the Nyberg Health Index (N = 854). Ten-fold cross-validated elastic net predictive modeling revealed that estimated VO2Max was modestly associated with distributed FA. In contrast, there was no significant association between Nyberg Health Index scores and FA. Our findings suggest that cardiovascular fitness levels, but not healthy lifestyle behaviors, are associated with the distributed integrity of white matter in the brain in midlife. These patterns could help inform future clinical intervention research targeting ADRDs.

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