The connection between exercise and brain health has now been super conclusively and astonishingly shown, but what are some possible evolutionary reasons for this connection?<p>Maybe the extra energetic investment in brain health is only justified when there is an energetic surplus, and doing exercise correlates with having extra energy available? (As opposed to starving and thus needing to conserve energy.) But that doesn't actually make sense, since the extra metabolic expenditure of these processes can't possibly be all that high, and doesn't the brain use almost the same (huge) amount of resources whether it's at rest or very cognitively active?
For all the entrepreneurs wanting to bottle Cathepsin B (the "Brain-Healthy Protein"), unfortunately it has also been linked with tumour invasion and metastasis[1]. Further study is needed to know if the increase in Cathepsin B is a factor or simply correlation.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14587299" rel="nofollow">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14587299</a>
There is a strange dichotomy here... I do believe that exercise helps thinking, but when I was growing up, very few of the smarter people were involved in sports, either formally or informally. Perhaps 1 in 20 was on a team, and few were that active otherwise. The link to drama and music was much bigger.
I would be more interested in a discussion of the benefits of the different types of exercise. I see there is this sentiment about seeing the same type of exercise is good for you articles every week.<p>Which types help lower cholestrol?<p>Which types are best for the heart?
well im surprised to be the first person in this thread to ask this question (if i am not mistaken) but what about supplementing the protein instead of working out?
This is exactly the message we are trying to get across at Gyroscope.<p><a href="https://gyrosco.pe/myusuf3/2016/6/27/" rel="nofollow">https://gyrosco.pe/myusuf3/2016/6/27/</a><p>As you can see, me there playing sports that evening, super exciting and really keeps me focused. Granted hard to take me seriously, but we have some users like Tatiana have done some amazing stuff<p><a href="https://blog.gyrosco.pe/tatiana-b68f863333f9#.s6ugu6g65" rel="nofollow">https://blog.gyrosco.pe/tatiana-b68f863333f9#.s6ugu6g65</a>
I had heard that even a brief bit of HIIT has all of the benefits of longer exercise times... Does this refute that or give evidence in support of that?
Are there any studies on what kind of exercise, or what kind of intensity is most beneficial to overall or mental health?<p>Edit: Got back to my laptop and did some research myself.<p>Aerobic Exercise Training Increases Brain Volume in Aging Humans (and nonaerobic doesn't) -<a href="http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/61/11/1166.long" rel="nofollow">http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/61/11/11...</a><p>Findings show that although the more intense, motorized running exercise induced a rapid
increase in BDNF, the elevation was more short-lived than with voluntary running. Suggests that longer, easier exercises might be more beneficial. - <a href="http://202.120.143.134/download/20090702135031_277199777813.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://202.120.143.134/download/20090702135031_277199777813....</a><p>Exercise effects on executive function are not doseresponsive, meaning that better fitness does not
necessarily lead to larger cognitive gains... physical activity levels that benefit cognition may
not necessarily be as intense as those levels required to increase cardiovascular fitness. - <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michelle_Ploughman/publication/23247248_Ploughman_M._Exercise_is_brain_food_the_effects_of_physical_activity_on_cognitive_function/links/0912f50b24e3bd11f6000000.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michelle_Ploughman/publ...</a><p>neither duration (20 vs. 40 min) nor intensity (60 vs. 80% HR reserve) significantly affects the benefits of exercise if only the sBDNF increase at a single post-exercise time point is considered... -<a href="http://www.jssm.org/research.php?id=jssm-12-502.xml" rel="nofollow">http://www.jssm.org/research.php?id=jssm-12-502.xml</a><p>High intensity interval training evokes (slightly) larger serum BDNF levels compared to intense continuous exercise. - <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nicole_Wenderoth/publication/282911637_High_intensity_interval_training_evokes_larger_serum_BDNF_levels_compared_to_intense_continuous_exercise/links/5649aa1508aef646e6d29ed1.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nicole_Wenderoth/public...</a><p>This meta-analysis provides reliable evidence that both acute and regular exercise have a significant impact on BDNF levels. (but animal models show that these can be gone soon after you stop training) - <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314337/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314337/</a><p>The effects of acute exercise on cognitive performance:
A meta-analysis - <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yu_Kai_Chang/publication/223962303_The_effects_of_acute_exercise_on_cognitive_performance_A_meta-analysis/links/56191a6308ae78721f9cfd3b.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yu_Kai_Chang/publicatio...</a><p>I can recommend the meta-analysis (last link), data is unfortunately somewhat inconclusive. There are basically two theories, the inverted-U theory, stating that moderate exercise is most beneficial and the drive theory, stating that the largest effects will be achieved with the largest intensity. Chang et. al., however, conclude that: The size of the benefit is dependent upon a number of factors, but results indicate that benefits are larger for more fit individuals who perform the physical activity for 20 min or longer. The appropriate intensity depends upon the time of measurement — any intensity benefits cognitive performance during exercise, but lower intensities provide more benefit when the tests are performed immediately after exercise and higher intensities have more durable effects that can be observed even following a delay.
Related study from 2014, with more details on consequences, less on biological detail:<p>"Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills"<p><a href="http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110" rel="nofollow">http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-...</a>
Does it have to be a treadmill? I mostly do the elliptical (ski whatever it's called) since i'm not much of a runner. Just curious if I need to take it up a notch or not.
John Ratey (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ratey" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ratey</a>), the professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who wrote Driven to Distration, recently published a book called "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain" (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-Brain/dp/0316113506" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-B...</a>).<p>Spark details how high-intensity cardio (like sprints or interval training) put your brain chemicals in balance in part by generating BDNF (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-derived_neurotrophic_factor" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-derived_neurotrophic_fact...</a>), which as Ratey describes, it's like "Miracle-gro" for the brain.<p>Last year my stress levels were getting out of control from working too much. At the time I was running at least two miles every day so it's not like I wasn't exercising. But then one day I changed from running a couple miles to running 50-yard sprints, as fast and as hard as I could push myself. The first day I only ran four sprints, but I felt euphoric the rest of the day -- the best I had felt in years. So I tried it again a couple days later, and sure enough it worked again -- I felt amazing.<p>So then I had to find out why this worked -- why a few sprints were so much more effective than running several miles. I started Googling and eventually found Ratey's book -- it explains the entire biochemical process of what's going on and why sprinting works.<p>It's an eye-opening read. Each chapter covers how high-intensity cardio affects things like stress, anxiety, depression, ADHD. I have ADHD but haven't taken anything for it in years (since I was in college), and I can attest that sprints not only fixed by stress levels, but my ADHD symptoms were almost non existent.<p>Here's a key point that Ratey makes throughout the book that completely changed my perspective on things -- he says that instead of thinking of exercise as something you should do to look good and build a healthy body, you should instead think of exercise as the key to building a healthy brain:<p>"We all know that exercise makes us feel better, but most of us have no idea why. We assume its because we're burning off stress or reducing muscle tension or boosting endorphins, and we leave it at that. But the real reason we feel so good when we get our blood pumping is that it makes the brain function at its best" (<a href="http://www.sparkinglife.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.sparkinglife.org</a>).<p>In the book's introduction he goes on to say, "Building muscles and conditioning the heart and lungs are essentially side effects. I often tell my patients that the point of exercise is to build and condition the brain."<p>In fact the brain exercise routine he recommends is similar to a weight workout routine, in that you have to push yourself hard one day, and then take a day off to let your brain recover, just like in weight training. Another key is when you sprint, always put everything you have into it. Run as fast and as hard as you can so you are constantly pushing your body and your brain past their limitations -- this is the key to growth.<p>Reposted from: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5323019" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5323019</a> (2013)<p>Also see: "How exercise boosts brain health" (<a href="http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-exercise-boosts-brain-health" rel="nofollow">http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-exercise-boosts-brain-health</a>)
Why do we have an article saying basically the same thing every single week here?<p>I get it, and I think everyone here has, exercise is good for you, in many ways, don't sit on your ass all day.<p>I guess it's sad to see this becoming the "Good Morning America" of tech (not that we didn't have those ones already) or the ultra localized we-only-care-about-the-bay-area medium.
"Brain-healthy"... that's the BS language you hear in commercials for vitamins and supplements and breakfast cereals... "Heart-healthy whole grains", "Supports breast health", etc.