Alberta Innovates- Health Solutions - Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research

It's commonly known that regular exercise can

• improve our physical and mental health
• lessen our risk for heart disease and other serious illnesses.

In a collaborative Health Research Fund study with Heritage-supported physiotherapist Dr. Jean Wessel and doctoral student, Sharla King, Dr. Yagesh Bhambhani studies the effects of

• an education program
• an exercise program, and
• a combination program of education and exercise

Dr. Bhambhani has also begun another Health Research Fund project to find out if exercise can help people with moderate to severe brain injury, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), improve their physical and mental health. TBI patients often experience a decrease in their physical abilities which results in premature fatigue and an inability to carry out simple tasks of daily living. Patients can also experience

• memory loss
• decreased attention span
• information processing
• problem-solving skills.
• depression or anxiety.

The three-part study--8 weeks of physical and psychological evaluation, 16 weeks of conditioning, and 8 weeks of de-conditioning--will evaluate the effects of aerobic exercise on the physical and mental capacities of TBI patients. Over two years, Dr. Bhambhani and his colleagues (Gary Rowland, an occupational therapist and neuropsychologist, Dr. Peter Wass, both in the brain injury program at Alberta Hospital Ponoka) plan to recruit and test 36 TBI patients from 18 to 40 years old.

The conditioning phase:

• patients will train three times a week using weights and an exercise bike
• focus -- improving aerobic fitness known to improve physical and mental health.

In the de-conditioning phase:

• patients will stop the supervised exercise program
• continue with their hospital-based rehabilitation program.

"We'll be monitoring their fitness levels and brain and blood oxygenation levels before, midway and after the conditioning phase and the eight weeks of de-conditioning to see if there is any change in cognition or behaviour," Dr. Bhambhani says. "Our guess is that the gains in aerobic fitness will result in improved oxygenation levels in the brain which in turn will positively improve their mental health."

Improved fitness alone should improve patients' lives, Dr. Bhambhani notes. "Hopefully, many of them will be able to go back to work or be more independent and less reliant on caregivers."

Dr. Yagesh Bhambhani receives support for his study from the Health Research Fund administered by AHFMR for Alberta Health and Wellness. He is also a co-investigator on a team that received support from the Alberta Paraplegic Foundation (Neurotrauma Funding). Dr. Bhambhani works in the Department of Occupational Therapy in the U of A's Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine.

For more information:
National Resource for Traumic Brain Injury
Canadian Paraplegic Association