The clinical landscape of neurodegenerative disease is shifting. As Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease rise in global prevalence, the demand for clinicians who can move beyond pharmacological management and offer evidence-based, neuroprotective interventions has never been greater. Exercise neuroscience, neuroplasticity, BDNF, cognitive assessment, and exercise prescription for neurodegeneration are no longer peripheral knowledge areas. They are becoming core clinical competencies for any practitioner working with aging patients.

This course translates a robust and growing body of research, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses current through 2025, into clinical capability. You will develop a precise understanding of how aerobic exercise modifies amyloid beta accumulation, tau protein pathology, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress in Alzheimer's disease. You will understand how dopaminergic depletion in the substantia nigra drives the Parkinson's disease presentation and how structured exercise programs produce measurable improvements on validated outcomes including the UPDRS, MMSE, and ADAS-Cog. You will leave with a framework for exercise dosing that accounts for intensity, frequency, duration, modality, and patient age, grounded in the research and ready for immediate clinical application.

This course is designed for licensed clinicians who are already active in neurology-adjacent practice and are ready to formalize their approach to neuroprotective care. Chiropractors, chiropractic neurologists, physical therapists, and other advanced clinicians working with older adult populations will find this content immediately applicable.

Dr. Shad Groves is a board-certified chiropractic neurologist with over two decades of clinical and academic experience at the Carrick Institute. A Full Professor of Clinical Neuroscience awarded at the ISCN in 2025, he holds a Master's in Neuroscience with a thesis on exercising the brain, has served as team chiropractic neurologist for a professional soccer organization, and has contributed to peer-reviewed literature on BDNF, exercise, and depression. He brings an exceptionally rare combination of elite athletic experience, academic rigor, and frontline clinical insight to this material.