Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Improves Cerebral Blood Flow and Cognitive Function in Old People
In today's open access paper, researchers report a modest improvement in cerebral blood flow and cognitive performance in a small study of older individuals suffering cognitive impairment as a result of sustained hyperbaric oxygen treatment over a period of months. This seems a compensatory approach to therapy, in that improvements in cerebral blood flow should be expected to improve cognitive function at any age. This is the mechanism by which exercise rapidly improves memory function, for example. A direct comparison of hyperbaric oxygen treatment and exercise would be interesting.
This result might help to inform discussions of the degree to which loss of blood supply to the brain contributes to cognitive decline in patients diagnosed with neurodegenerative conditions. Vascular dementia is an acknowledged and well-researched condition, but to what degree is the impairment of Alzheimer's patients at various stages due to vascular aging and consequent reduced blood flow to the brain, versus the harmful protein aggregation and neuroinflammation characteristic of Alzheimer's? Absent a way to remove just one of these pathologies, it is hard to answer that question.
It is worth noting that this study was conducted and published by the same groups who put together the poor study and accompanying overhyped media materials regarding the effects of hyperbaric oxygen treatment on measures of metabolism related to aging. It is most likely a good idea to treat this and an...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
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