Month: April 2022

So many physical abilities decline with normal aging, including strength, swiftness, and stamina. In addition to these muscle-related declines, there are also changes that occur in coordinating the movements of the body. Together, these changes mean that as you age, you may not be able to perform activities such as running to catch a bus, walking around the garden, carrying groceries into the house, keeping your balance on a slippery surface, or playing catch with your grandchildren as well as you used to. But do these activities have to deteriorate? Let’s look at why these declines happen — and what you can do to actually improve your strength and coordination.

Changes in strength

Changes in strength, swiftness, and stamina with age are all associated with decreasing muscle mass. Although there is not much decline in your muscles between ages 20 and 40, after age 40 there can be a decline of 1% to 2% per year in lean body mass and 1.5% to 5% per year in strength.

The loss of muscle mass is related to both a reduced number of muscle fibers and a reduction in fiber size. If the fibers become too small, they die. Fast-twitch muscle fibers shrink and die more rapidly than others, leading to a loss of muscle speed. In addition, the capacity for muscles to undergo repair also diminishes with age. One cause of these changes is decline in muscle-building hormones and growth factors including testosterone, estrogen, dehydroepiandrosterone (better known as DHEA), growth hormone, and insulin-like growth factor.

Changes in coordination

Changes in coordination are less related to muscles and more related to the brain and nervous system. Multiple brain centers need to be, well, coordinated to allow you to do everything from hitting a golf ball to keeping a coffee cup steady as you walk across a room. This means that the wiring of the brain, the so-called white matter that connects the different brain regions, is crucial.

Unfortunately, most people in our society over age 60 who eat a western diet and don’t get enough exercise have some tiny "ministrokes" (also called microvascular or small vessel disease) in their white matter. Although the strokes are so small that they are not noticeable when they occur, they can disrupt the connections between important brain coordination centers such as the frontal lobe (which directs movements) and the cerebellum (which provides on-the-fly corrections to those movements as needed).

In addition, losing dopamine-producing cells is common as you get older, which can slow down your movements and reduce your coordination, so even if you don’t develop Parkinson’s disease, many people develop some of the abnormalities in movement seen in Parkinson's.

Lastly, changes in vision — the "eye" side of hand-eye coordination — are also important. Eye diseases are much more common in older adults, including cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration. In addition, mild difficulty seeing can be the first sign of cognitive disorders of aging, including Lewy body disease and Alzheimer’s.

How to improve your strength and coordination

It turns out that one of the most important causes of reduced strength and coordination with aging is simply reduced levels of physical activity. There is a myth in our society that it is fine to do progressively less exercise the older you get. The truth is just the opposite! As you age, it becomes more important to exercise regularly — perhaps even increasing the amount of time you spend exercising to compensate for bodily changes in hormones and other factors that you cannot control. The good news is that participating in exercises to improve strength and coordination can help people of any age. (Note, however, that you may need to be more careful with your exercise activities as you age to prevent injuries. If you’re not sure what the best types of exercises are for you, ask your doctor or a physical therapist.)

Here are some things you can do to improve your strength and coordination, whether you are 18 or 88 years old:

• Participate in aerobic exercise such as brisk walking, jogging, biking, swimming, or aerobic classes at least 30 minutes per day, five days per week.
• Participate in exercise that helps with strength, balance, and flexibility at least two hours per week, such as yoga, tai chi, Pilates, and isometric weightlifting.
• Practice sports that you want to improve at, such as golf, tennis, and basketball.
• Take advantage of lessons from teachers and advice from coaches and trainers to improve your exercise skills.
• Work with your doctor to treat diseases that can interfere with your ability to exercise, including orthopedic injuries, cataracts and other eye problems, and Parkinson’s and other movement disorders.
• Fuel your brain and muscles with a Mediterranean menu of foods including fish, olive oil, avocados, fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, whole grains, and poultry. Eat other foods sparingly.
• Sleep well — you can actually improve your skills overnight while you are sleeping.

About the Author

Andrew E. Budson, MD, Contributor

Dr. Andrew E. Budson is chief of cognitive & behavioral neurology at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, lecturer in neurology at Harvard Medical School, and chair of the Science of Learning Innovation Group at the Harvard Medical School Academy. Graduating cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1993, he has given over 650 local, national, and international grand rounds and other talks; published over 100 scientific papers, reviews, and book chapters; and co-authored or edited seven books. His book Seven Steps to Managing Your Memory: What’s Normal, What’s Not, and What to Do About It explains how individuals can distinguish changes in memory due to Alzheimer’s versus normal aging; what medications, vitamins, diets, and exercise regimes can help; and the best habits, strategies, and memory aids to use; it is being translated into Chinese and Korean. His book Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Dementia: A Practical Guide for Clinicians has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. His latest book, Six Steps to Managing Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: A Guide for Families teaches caregivers how they can manage all the problems that come with dementia—and still take care of themselves. Website: Andrew Budson, MD Facebook: Andrew Budson, MD Twitter: @abudson View all posts by Andrew E. Budson, MD

When you think about progressive brain disorders that cause dementia, you usually think of memory problems. But sometimes language problems — also known as aphasia — are the first symptom.

What’s aphasia?

Aphasia is a disorder of language because of injury to the brain. Strokes (when a blood clot blocks off an artery and a part of the brain dies) are the most common cause, although aphasia may also be caused by traumatic brain injuries, brain tumors, encephalitis, and almost anything else that damages the brain, including neurodegenerative diseases.

How neurodegenerative diseases cause aphasia

Neurodegenerative diseases are disorders that slowly and relentlessly damage the brain. After ruling out a brain tumor with an MRI scan, you can usually tell when aphasia is from a neurodegenerative disease, rather than a stroke or other cause, by its time course: Strokes happen within seconds to minutes. Encephalitis presents over hours to days. Neurodegenerative diseases cause symptoms over months to years.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative disease, but there are other types as well, such as frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Different neurodegenerative diseases damage different parts of the brain and cause different symptoms. When a neurodegenerative disease causes problems with language first and foremost, it is called primary progressive aphasia.

How is primary progressive aphasia diagnosed?

Primary progressive aphasia is generally diagnosed by a cognitive behavioral neurologist and/or a neuropsychologist who specializes in late-life disorders. The evaluation should include a careful history of any language and other problems that are present; a neurological examination; pencil-and-paper testing of thinking, memory, and language; blood tests to rule out vitamin deficiencies, thyroid disorders, infections, and other medical problems; and an MRI scan to look for strokes, tumors, and other abnormalities that can affect the brain’s structure.

The general criteria for primary progressive aphasia include:

• difficulty with language is the most prominent clinical feature at the onset and initial phases of the neurodegenerative disease
• these language problems are severe enough to cause impaired day-to-day functioning
• other disorders that could cause the language problems have been looked for and are not present.

There are three major variants of primary progressive aphasia

Primary progressive aphasia is divided into different variants based on which aspect of language is disrupted.

Logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia causes word-finding difficulties. Individuals with this variant have trouble finding common, everyday words such as table, chair, blue, knee, celery, and honesty. They know what these words mean, however.

Semantic variant primary progressive aphasia causes difficulty in understanding what words mean. When given the word, individuals with this variant may not understand what a table or chair is, which color is blue, where to find their knee, what celery is good for, and what honesty means.

Nonfluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia causes effortful, halting speech in which individuals know what they want to say but cannot get the words out. When they can get words out, their sentences often have incorrect grammar. Although they know what the individual words mean, they may have trouble understanding a sentence with complex grammar, such as, “The lion was eaten by the tiger.”

Different primary progressive aphasia variants are caused by different diseases

These primary progressive aphasia variants are not diseases themselves. They are symptoms of brain problems. Not sure what I mean? Consider three other symptoms: fever, headache, and chest pain. As you know, each of these symptoms may be caused by different underlying diseases.

The logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia is usually caused by Alzheimer’s disease. Does that surprise you? What this means is that although Alzheimer’s disease typically begins with memory loss, in some individuals it can start with trouble finding words. Memory problems typically begin a few years later. (Why do we call it Alzheimer’s disease if it doesn’t start with memory problems? Because Alzheimer’s disease is defined by the pathology that we see under the microscope when we examine the brain tissue, not by its symptoms.)

The semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia is usually caused by frontotemporal lobar degeneration, and specifically by accumulation of TDP-43. TDP-43 is an abnormal protein that accumulates in — and ultimately kills — brain cells.

The nonfluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive is also usually caused by frontotemporal lobar degeneration, but this time it is most often due to tau pathology. Tau accumulation leads to tangles inside cells that damage and then destroy them.

Can primary progressive aphasia be treated?

The treatments available for primary progressive aphasia are generally strategies and systems to help individuals with these disorders communicate better.

• Thinking of information related to the word they are looking for can sometimes help individuals with logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia. For example, if they are searching for the word lion, thinking of yellow, Africa, big cat, mane, and similar words may help.
• Using your tone of voice, facial expression, and body language can be helpful to communicate with individuals with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia, as can pantomiming the message you are trying to convey.
• Using pictures, either on paper or in a tablet-based application, can be helpful to individuals with all variants of primary progressive aphasia.

Unfortunately, there are no cures for primary progressive aphasia, and no medications that have been shown to be effective. Most patients with primary progressive aphasia develop other cognitive problems over time, leading to a more general dementia.

If you suspect that you (or your loved one) may have primary progressive aphasia, start by meeting with your doctor. If your doctor is concerned, they will send you (or your loved one) to the right specialist.

About the Author

Andrew E. Budson, MD, Contributor

Dr. Andrew E. Budson is chief of cognitive & behavioral neurology at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, lecturer in neurology at Harvard Medical School, and chair of the Science of Learning Innovation Group at the Harvard Medical School Academy. Graduating cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1993, he has given over 650 local, national, and international grand rounds and other talks; published over 100 scientific papers, reviews, and book chapters; and co-authored or edited seven books. His book Seven Steps to Managing Your Memory: What’s Normal, What’s Not, and What to Do About It explains how individuals can distinguish changes in memory due to Alzheimer’s versus normal aging; what medications, vitamins, diets, and exercise regimes can help; and the best habits, strategies, and memory aids to use; it is being translated into Chinese and Korean. His book Memory Loss, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Dementia: A Practical Guide for Clinicians has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. His latest book, Six Steps to Managing Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: A Guide for Families teaches caregivers how they can manage all the problems that come with dementia—and still take care of themselves. Website: Andrew Budson, MD Facebook: Andrew Budson, MD Twitter: @abudson View all posts by Andrew E. Budson, MD