Fitness trackers could spot earliest signs of Alzheimer’s BEFORE symptoms start

WE TEND to think of Alzheimer’s as a disease that affects brain function and memory.

But researchers argue that the disease could make itself know through the way we move – specifically, what times of the day we’re most active.

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A new study published in the journal SLEEP claimed that monitoring a person’s daily activity patterns through a wrist-worn fitness tracker may highlight early warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

They predicted the devices may be used to spot symptoms of the brain robbing disease in the future.

It’s estimated that over 900,000 Brits currently live with dementia, 60 to 70 per cent of whom have Alzheimer’s disease, according to Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Though there currently isn’t a cure for the condition, sufferers can be prescribed medicines to temporarily reduce symptoms when the disease is in its early stages.

Most of follow a set daily routine, which defines how much we move throughout the day and when, known as your daily activity pattern.

You might find yourself being more active in the morning, while others might move more in the evening.

Activity patterns have been studied in conjunction with cardiovascular disease, mental health and brain health.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health sought to investigate whether activity patterns could shed light on someone’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Lead by Dr Adam Spira, professor in the school’s Department of Mental Health, the team asked 82 ognitively healthy older adults taking part in the long-running Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Ageing to wear wristwatch-like devices called actigraphs.

Participants had an average age of 76 and 25 of them had detectable amounts of beta amyloid in the brain.

The protein plays a role in forming amyloid plaques in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease that gradually impeded brain function.

The group of people was described as “amyloid-positive”, while the remaining 57 participants were “amyloid-negative”.

Scientists analysed data collected by the actigraph devices and noticed significant differences in how much the two groups moved throughout the day and at which times they were most active.

The “amyloid-positive” group had higher average activity during the early afternoon between 1 pm to 3:30 pm and fewer day-to-day activity changes from 1:30 to 4:00 pm and 7:30 to 10:30 pm.

Dr Spira told Medical News Today: “Our results are noteworthy because they showed, in people who were cognitively normal, that those with detectable beta-amyloid in their brains had different patterns of activity at particular times of day from those without beta-amyloid.

“This is a novel finding.”

“It will be important to follow people who exhibit patterns of activity like those that we linked to the presence of beta-amyloid, to see if they are at greater risk of subsequent cognitive decline,” he continued.

“It would also be intriguing to examine whether these 24-hour patterns predict the development of beta-amyloid in those who do not have it.”

While the actigraphs were scientific devices, Dr Spira said we might one day be able to detect early signs of Alzheimer’s through commonly available fitness trackers

“Whether these methods could be used in the future for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease depends on whether further studies support our findings or identify other ‘digital signatures’ of Alzheimer’s disease that can be detected using wearable devices,” he explained.

“If they do, it is conceivable that one day, wearable devices will be used to help identify people at elevated risk for neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.

“We’re not there yet, though,” Dr Spira noted.

He urged people to not try to interpret data from their own devices as a sign of whether they have amyloid in their brains.

Dr Clifford Segil, a neurologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center who was not involved in the research, told Medical News Today that decreased activity throughout the day isn’t necessarily a sign of Alzheimer’s.

“Decreased activity as people age is normal and more worrisome for other medical comorbidities like heart disease, neuropathies, or other medical problems more than dementia.

Meanwhile, Dr Jennifer Bramen, a senior research scientist at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute, said she would be “sceptical” about using fitness trackers to detect Alzheimer’s, as the devices aren’t always reliable and can make mistakes, possibly causing unnecessary distress and unwarranted testing for patients.

Dementia experts have previously emphasised that frequent physical activity can help stave off cognitive decline.

It comes as researchers recently warned that that sitting for ten hours a day, whether that’s at work or watching TV, “rapidly” increases the risk of dementia.