Sex differences in exercise efficacy: Is midlife a critical window for promoting healthy cognitive aging?
Sex differences in exercise efficacy: Is midlife a critical window for promoting healthy cognitive aging?
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DOI：
10.1096/fj.202000857r
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发表时间：
2020-08-06
期刊：
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Liu-Ambrose, Teresa
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Barha, Cindy K.;Liu-Ambrose, Teresa
痴呆症是本世纪最紧迫的医疗保健问题之一。由于目前尚无治疗痴呆症的方法，因此研究人员正在加大力度寻找有效的生活方式干预措施来预防或延缓发病。一种促进认知和大脑健康的有前途的策略是进行体育锻炼。然而，目前的锻炼建议并不精确。为了提高锻炼作为预防和治疗策略的潜力，文献中正在解决有关调节因素（即生物性别和年龄）的重要问题。生物性别被认为是运动对大脑健康功效的一个重要变量，女性表现出更大的认知收益。这可能与潜在机制的性别差异有关。在这里，我们认为为了更好地了解运动功效的性别差异，还应该考虑运动干预的时机。具体来说，我们提出这样的假设：女性中年是实施锻炼作为促进大脑健康和预防痴呆的早期干预措施的关键窗口。此外，我们推测，针对中年的运动干预对于女性大脑至关重要，因为女性在度过这一时期时，认知障碍的风险更大。鉴于痴呆症风险和患病率存在潜在的性别差异，有必要评估运动功效的潜在性别差异，作为中年早期干预措施。
Dementia is one of the most pressing health care issues of this century. As no curative treatment for dementia exists, research efforts are growing to identify effective lifestyle interventions to prevent or delay onset. One such promising strategy that promotes cognitive and brain health is engaging in physical exercise. However, current exercise recommendations are imprecise. To advance the potential of exercise as a preventative and treatment strategy, important questions regarding moderators (ie, biological sex and age) are being addressed in the literature. Biological sex is recognized as an important variable to consider in exercise efficacy on brain health, with females showing greater cognitive gains. This may be related to sex differences in underlying mechanisms. Here, we argue to better understand the sex differences in exercise efficacy, the timing of exercise intervention should also be considered. Specifically, we present the hypothesis that midlife in females is a critical window for the implementation of exercise as an early intervention to promote brain health and prevent dementia. Further, we speculate that exercise interventions targeting midlife will be of critical importance for the female brain, as females exit this period of the lifespan at greater risk for cognitive impairment. Given the potential sex differences in dementia risk and prevalence, it is imperative to assess potential sex differences in exercise efficacy as an early intervention during midlife.