Can Alzheimer’s be recognized by unconscious movements?

= Identifying Alzheimer ‘s at its first manifestations is not always simple, in fact, very often it is complicated because the ways in which this pathology manifests itself are different and each person develops them in their own way.

However, there are some gestures and movements that can be a warning sign.

In particular, according to research carried out by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston , what is indicative would be the unconscious fluctuations of daily gestures, which are often impossible to grasp with the naked eye but detectable only through very precise instruments.

What is Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease with a chronic and progressive course that takes its name from the German neurologist Alois Alzheimer who was the first to describe its characteristics at the beginning of the 1900s.

Its action takes the form of progressively destroying brain cells , causing an irreversible deterioration of various cognitive functions such as reasoning, language and memory . As time passes, the autonomy and ability to carry out common daily actions are seriously compromised in those affected.

The most recurrent cause of the onset of Alzheimer’s appears to be linked to the alteration of the metabolism of a protein, the precursor protein of beta amyloid.

Worldwide, this pathology currently affects approximately 5% of the population over 65 and 20% of those over 85 and represents the most common cause of dementia in the elderly population of developed countries.

How the American study took place

The recent study carried out by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston made use of complex mathematical formulas to understand whether there are and what are the unconscious and repeated movements of the body that can predict the onset of a degenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s. In scientific jargon, these movements are defined as Fmar, an English acronym which means “regulation of fractal motor activity ” and can only be measured with an actigraph, which the monitored person wears exactly as he would with a wristwatch and which records every slightest bodily movement .

Once the method had been established, the study involved 178 adults without already diagnosed cognitive problems, who agreed to wear the actigraph for a period ranging from 7 to 14 days, during their daily lives. Once collected, the subtle movement data was interpreted and classified using computer fractals.

At the same time, many participants also underwent an imaging examination with PET and accepted the control of the cerebrospinal fluid , in order to verify whether senile plaques formed by aggregates of amyloid proteins , typical of Alzheimer’s pathology, were present in the brain.

The search results

From the study , published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, a strong correspondence emerged between the Fmar data and the results of the markers identified through the tests of the volunteers who had undergone more specific tests.

However, this only concerned women , while such coincidences were not highlighted in men. The reasons are currently unknown.

According to Lei Gao, one of the researchers who took part in the project, «the unconscious movements that take place every day can reveal changes in the brain many years before the obvious symptoms of the disease appear. If our results are validated by other research, a window could be opened for possible early treatments in order to modify some risk factors, if they are present.” This would be a significant change of pace, given that one of the aspects in which Alzheimer’s treatment is most lacking is that of preventive research, specifically regarding early risk biomarkers.

How to recognize the difference between Alzheimer’s and dementia .

Possible therapeutic applications

However, given the partial nature of the results and the not too high number of participants, talking about the real and imminent application of these results in the diagnostic and therapeutic field is rather premature . Also because there are some clarifications to be made.

Among the 178 volunteers subjected to more specific tests, approximately 33 revealed the presence of beta-amyloid plaques, but while it is true that all Alzheimer’s patients have beta-amyloid substance, not all people with beta-amyloid substance develop the disease.

Be careful of the slow pace

Among the many involuntary movements analyzed by the US study, the only one about which there is a good deal of certainty that it can most likely announce the onset of Alzheimer’s and dementia in advance is the slowed pace.

Starting to walk at a decidedly slower speed than usual can in fact portend cognitive degradation. This was supported a couple of years ago by an Italian-Swedish study published in Experimental Gerontology, or rather a review of 39 studies involving almost 58,000 people. In 33 of these studies, a significant association was recorded between slowed walking and cognitive problems, including in some cases dementia and Alzheimer’s. However, positive news also emerged from the same study, namely that in a third of cases the cognitive deficit would not worsen and could even disappear over time.