An Update on Exercise in People at Genetic Risk of ALS & FTD: Daniel Brickman, PHD

Daniel Brickman, PhD, is a statistician by training and currently works as a freelance biotech strategy and statistical consultant. His father and paternal grandmother both passed away from ALS. He recently conducted an (unpublished) systematic review of the literature on exercise and ALS/FTD and was an invited community speaker at the ALS Hope Foundation workshop on guidance for pre-symptomatic ALS and FTD. Daniel will summarize general guidance on exercise and provide a brief overview of recent preliminary evidence that exercise may be protective for brain health in FTD. Although the media has reported that people with a C9ORF72 repeat expansion who exercise strenuously have an earlier age of onset of ALS, he will summarize how there is not credible evidence to support this claim. The purpose of this presentation is to correct the record on the misinterpretation of data on exercise and ALS risk in order to support the physical and mental health of the community of people at genetic risk for ALS/FTD. He may be contacted regarding this talk at brickman dot d at gmail dot com .