The impact of an aquatic exercise program on BDNF levels in Parkinson's disease patients: short-and long-term outcomes.

The impact of an aquatic exercise program on BDNF levels in Parkinson's disease patients: short-and long-term outcomes. Funct Neurol. 2019 Apr/Jun;34(2):65-70 Authors: da Silva Germanos S, Vieira B, Reichert Vital da Silva I, da Cunha JJ, Nique S, Striebel V, Pochmann D, Rostirola Elsner V Abstract The present study aimed to analyze the short-and long-term effects of an aquatic exercise program on plasma brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). The aquatic exercise program lasted one month, and consisted of two sessions per week (1 hour per session). Blood samples were collected at four different timepoints: pre-intervention (T0), immediately after the first session (T1), 48 hours after the first session (T2), and 1 month after the intervention (T3). We found a significant decrease in BDNF levels at T2 vs T1 (p<0.05). However, no changes were observed at the other time-points. Our results demonstrated that the intervention reduced plasma BDNF levels in PD individuals in a time-dependent manner: specifically, we observed acute effects, but no delayed effects. PMID: 31556385 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Functional Neurology - Category: Neurology Tags: Funct Neurol Source Type: research