Author: Janet Pohl, PhD, RN

We recently had an opportunity to talk with Fang Yu, PhD, GNP-BC, RN, the Principal Investigator for a $4.5 million grant sponsored by the National Institute on Aging that is designed to explore the link between improving aerobic fitness and the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Yu is the Edson Chair in Dementia Translational Nursing Science with Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University. There are other aspects of fitness, such as muscular fitness and flexibility, but her research mainly focuses on aerobic fitness which is defined as how well we use oxygen as an energy source.

Learning from her previous research, Dr. Yu said, “people don’t actually respond to exercise the same way, just like medications. Some medications work for some patients but not for others.” She uses the term “precision exercise” and explained the term with the example of cancer treatments in which they have “biomarkers” to guide treatments. “So, one way to operationalize precision medicine [exercise] is basically to meet them where they are or what characteristics they have within their environment.”

“We assess peoples’ aerobic fitness level to individualize an exercise prescription for the first three months, and then we see how they respond to that exercise.” Did it improve aerobic fitness? If it didn’t, the intervention is changed to a different exercise program to hopefully improve the individuals’ aerobic fitness. Dr. Yu’s research includes the exploration of biomarkers to measure treatment benefits for precision exercise knowledge. She hopes there may come a day when providers hand out aerobic exercise prescriptions to every person suspected of or having cognitive decline and a subsequent reduction of Alzheimer's Disease impact.