Health & Human Performance Institute

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Memory loss and exercise

New research is hinting that even mild exercise can help older Americans with mild memory problems.

In a recent study conducted by Dr. Laura Baker, a neuroscientist at Wake Forest School of Medicine, 300 sedentary subjects with hard to spot memory challenges-also called mild cognitive impairment (sometimes a precursor to Alzheimer’s) were assigned to aerobic and the other half to a flexibility/stretching program. After a year, cognitive testing showed neither group worsened NOR did the brain scans show shrinkage. When compared to another study where subjects had no exercise, the results showed a significant cognitive decline.

Exercise promotes blood flow to the body, but also the the brain; hence, why it is crucial to exercise at an intensity where heart rate is increased along with blood flow. Use exercise as a preventative measure and make it a lifestyle.

Meet one of our HHPI Research Assistant Karishma Patel!
Karishma has been attending the University of Houston – Clear Lake for two years where she has been working on her Master of Science in Exercise and Health Sciences with a concentration in Clinical Exercise Physiology. She will graduate from UHCL with her Masters degree in the Summer of 2022 and is planning on becoming a licensed Physical Therapist in the US! Before coming to UHCL, Karishma received her Bachelors of Science in Physical Therapy. She has been a member of the Health and Human Performance Institute for a year now. What’s her favorite part about working with the HHPI? She loves being able to work with such an extremely driven and fun team of co-workers!
Fun Fact! Karishma has previously worked as a Physical Therapist in India and has published research in the Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research!
To learn more about Karishma and other members of our team visit:

https://www.uhcl.edu/hhpi/about/personnel

We hate to see you leave soon Karishma but we know you will do amazing things!

Parkinson’s Disease- a neurodegenerative disease.

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) occurs due to the degradation of neurons present in substantia nigra and straital pathway. PD is characterized by motor and nonmotor symptoms such as rigidity, bradykinesia, resting tremor, autonomic and cognitive dysfunctions, sleep disorders, and sensory disturbances.

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) as a therapeutic tool has become a new topic in neurorehabilitation research. From the perspective of kinematics learning, VR provides a possibility for high-intensity, task-oriented and multi-sensory feedback training, which can promote patients’ visual, auditory and tactile input.

In one systematic review, total of 555 patients with PD in 16 studies suggested that rehabilitation training based on VR technology is likely more effective than conventional training in improving PD patients’ balance function mobility, step and stride length, quality of life and neuropsychiatric symptoms. As the patients gets visual and auditory feedback he can improve the ability of the brain to perceive, process and integrate information, so that patients can better maintain balance, improve step and stride length and control posture.

Here at Health and Human Performance Institute we use VR for different neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic brain injury training.