The Principles of Exercise Prescription for Brain Health in Aging

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are among the world’s greatest health challenges. As the population ages, global dementia rates are rising, and with no imminent cure, there is an urgent need for interventions that reduce the risk of dementia in healthy older adults. Exercise is a promising intervention; however, exercise prescriptions for optimizing brain health are lacking. This may undermine the perceived clinical utility of exercise and pose a barrier that prevents practitioners from prescribing exercise for brain health in primary care settings. This graphical review briefly summarizes the prominent neural changes in healthy aging versus Alzheimer’s disease that exercise counteracts and provides evidence-informed principles for prescribing exercise to improve cognition as a reference point for formulating personalizable prescriptions.