London in the winter is a place for wooly sweaters and soft touch of hot tea , yet thosebrave enoughto take a magnetic inclination in one of the city ’s out-of-door swim spots may be rewarded with certain neurological benefit . concord to as yet unpublished research deport by a squad of scientists from Cambridge University , Londoners who on a regular basis swim outdoors during the wintertime have elevate levels of a protein that play a key theatrical role in the formation of mental capacity connection .

What makes this finding significant is that the protein in interrogation has been found to help protect the mastermind against neurodegenerative diseases likeAlzheimer’sin older eld , and could therefore be used to stave off dementedness .

The piece of work was represent by Professor Giovanna Mallucci , Associate Director of the   UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge , in anonline lecture , but has not yet been published in a scientific journal .

Throughout a person ’s lifespan , their genius continuously rewires itself by culling some connections – know assynapses – and mould newfangled I . However , a loss of the ability to create new synapses solvent in an overall loss of brain connections , leave to the sort of cognitive decline experienced by dementia sufferers .

investigator have known for some meter that this procedure can be influenced by temperature , as hibernating mammals experience a meaning loss of synapsis when they enter their annual slumber , yet immediately regain these connexion when they awake in spring .

A few years ago , a paper published in the journalNaturerevealed that this effect is mediated by a “ cold shock ” protein in the brain shout out RBM3 . The study authors exposed regular black eye as well as those that had been engender to develop dementia to freezing temperatures , and find that this caused both mathematical group to experience a loss of synapsis as they became hypothermic .

When the gnawer were warm up , grade of RBM3 skyrocketed in the healthy mice , result in a restoration of these lost synapses . The same did not come about in the rodents with dementia , though , as deficient RBM3 was generated and the lost brain connections were therefore not replaced .

These answer were then compound when the sketch author artificially induced the formation of RBM3 in the brains of these mouse , which cause synapsis to reform at the same rate as in healthy mice .

To look into whether this cold electrical shock chemical substance plays a alike purpose in humans , the same researchers measure RBM3 levels in the ancestry of a group ofoutdoor swimmingenthusiasts who regularly bathed in London ’s Parliament Hill Lido during three serial winter . significantly , all of these swimmer became hypothermic during their chilly dip .

liken to a control chemical group of non - natator , the cold body of water natator displayed significantly higher levels of RBM3 in their blood , suggesting that hypothermic conditions do indeed trigger the release of this key synapse constructor in humans .

While this is clearly very exciting , this is yet to be peer - reviewed inquiry , so it ’s far too early to say whether or not swimming in cold piss really does protect against dementedness . It ’s also crucial to remember that entering frozen water and becoming hypothermic can beextremely grievous .

harmonise toBBC News , the scientists behind this research are keen to accent that elderly hoi polloi should not take to outside swimming in winter . Instead , they are working on develop fresh drugs that can stimulate RBM3 yield in the wit without require anyone to get besotted .

[ H / T : BBC ]