CHICAGO, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Exercise may protect against both memory-loss and depressive mood after whole-brain radiation treatments, U.S. researchers say.
The study, presented at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Chicago, found mice with access to an exercise wheel less likely to suffer a decline in erasable memory after radiation and less likely to show depressive-like behavior.
"It was remarkable that the irradiated, running mice were just like the normal, non-irradiated mice that didn't exercise," study leader Sarah Wong-Goodrich of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., said in a statement.
The findings show how powerful exercise is and how many benefits it can provide, and even restore, after radiation, study researcher Lee Jones of the Duke Center for Cancer Survivorship said.
"Once a patient gets a doctor's clearance, I think exercise is a good thing during whole-brain radiation," Jones said. "I think telling patients to take it easy is the worst advice we can give, because we know they will become deconditioned physically, and this study shows exercise potentially could provide cognitive and psychological benefits."
