- Title
- The effects of age and exercise on cerebral vascular health
- Creator
- Milne, Ethan
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2024
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- This series of studies aimed to assess the influence of age and exercise on cerebrovascular health, which is a popular and practical topic of research. Healthy function of the cerebral vasculature into older age is important in reducing the risks of cerebral diseases such as small vessel disease, vascular stroke, and dementia. Thus, the importance of timely, accurate and cost-effective assessments of cerebrovascular health have gained prominence in recent years to better evaluate age-related changes within the cerebral vasculature. Given the apparent age-related changes in cerebrovascular health, there has been a significant focus on intervention strategies to counteract age-related changes in cerebrovascular health, with exercise becoming a prominent option. Therefore, this thesis aims to further the current findings within the literature relating to the influence of age and exercise on cerebrovascular health through a literature review and three original work studies. The studies within this thesis will explore different aspects including the influence of age on cerebrovascular compliance within athletic populations using a gold standard measure of cardiovascular fitness, the changes in cerebral haemodynamics during an incremental exercise test to exhaustion, and the evaluation of cerebral oxygenation breakpoints during an incremental exercise test to exhaustion utilising the ageing athletic model. An ageing athletic model was chosen as the lifelong training and competition adherence of this cohort counteracts the influence of increasing sedentary behaviour exhibited into older age, allowing for researchers to provide a clearer indication of any age-related effects on chosen variables. Specifically, we recruited masters’ athletes, who were defined as those aged 40 years or older who systematically train and compete in one or more individual or team sports consistently across their lifespan. Chapter 2 of this thesis is a literature review critically appraising the body of knowledge regarding the influence of age and exercise on cerebrovascular health and autoregulation. Additionally, this chapter also covers commonly used neuroimaging techniques to assess cerebrovascular compliance. Chapter 3 assessed the influence of age on cerebrovascular compliance using the gold standard measure of cardiovascular fitness within athletic populations. Chapter 4 investigated the influence of age on cerebral haemodynamics following an incremental exercise test to exhaustion in younger and masters athletes. Chapter 5 evaluated breakpoints in the cerebral oxygenation response during an incremental exercise test to exhaustion in an attempt to quantify cerebral oxygenation exercise thresholds. Comparisons were made for identified cerebral oxygenation thresholds between younger and masters athletes and other commonly reported physiological thresholds. Collectively, this thesis adds to the current literature regarding the effects of age and exercise on cerebrovascular health by identifying that age-related effects within athletic populations are still evident for cerebrovascular compliance and cerebral haemodynamics across the lifespan. Specific workloads based upon breakpoints in the cerebral oxygenation trace following an incremental exercise test to exhaustion have been proposed as potential exercise workloads that may help to reduce the severity of the evident age-related declines in cerebrovascular health into older age.
- Subject
- cerebrovascular health; aging; cerebrovascular compliance; near-infrared spectroscopy; incremental exercise test; oxygenated haemoglobin; cerebral oxygenation threshold
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1512883
- Identifier
- uon:56679
- Rights
- Copyright 2024 Ethan Milne
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 187 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |