These studies arrive at a moment when some of the most widely debated recent studies have cast doubt on the extent to which exercise enhances thinking and memory. A new study provides the strongest case to date that regular exercise can improve cognition.
These studies support the idea that “without a doubt, exercise is one of the best things you can do” for the brain. Mathieu BoagontierAssociate professor at the University of Ottawa who oversaw one of the studies.
“Miracle Gro” for your brain
The first indications that exercise remodels the brain and mind were found decades ago in mouse studies. Active, running animals in these experiments scored much higher than sedentary mice on rodent intelligence tests, and brain tissue showed levels of a substance known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. was rising. brain.
BDNF promotes the creation and maturation of new brain cells and synapses. It bloats the brain.
Since then, studies in people have established that exercise raises BDNF levels in the bloodstream, but it’s more difficult to look inside our brains to see if it rises there. many, Large scale Epidemiological studies, on the other hand, have shown that more exercise can improve memory and thinking skills, and reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
But questions remained about just how powerful exercise is for our brains.
A study of more than 500 older adults published last year found little cognitive benefit from regular walking or other light exercise for 18 months. Review of past studies .
According to Boisgontier, some scientific disciplines are starting to debate whether exercise should continue to be recommended as a way to maintain mental acuity as we age. “Don’t stop. Look at our findings first,” he said.
A study by Boisgontier and his colleagues found that It was published last week in Scientific Reportsusing a novel and complex type of statistical analysis, go beyond traditional observational studies to firmly establish that exercise improves brain skills.
they looked to the DNA, Mendelian randomization, a recently popular method of using genetic variation to characterize and classify people. Each of us is born with or without certain DNA fragments. From the moment we are born, we are essentially randomized to be either mobile or non-mobile. Other gene snippets play similar roles in cognition.
By cross-checking the cognitive scores of people with and without snippets that promote exercise with those with genetic mutations associated with cognition, scientists were able to determine how well exercise impacted thinking skills. You can identify who is contributing.
They pulled genetic data from about 350,000 people of all ages, objective measures of physical activity for about 91,000 of them, and cognitive scores for about 258,000 from two large databases of health information. People with a genetic predisposition to exercise generally exercised better and scored better on thought tests when the exercise was at least moderately comparable to jogging.
And yes, you can get brain benefits from exercise even without the gene fragment.
According to Boisgontier, the interplay between exercise and thought is powerful enough to show cause-and-effect relationships, and in this large-scale study, it means that the right amount of exercise resulted in a sharper mind.
Six minutes of vigorous exercise increases BDNF
the other new researchalthough relatively small, may help explain how exercise keeps the brain healthy.
In this experiment, 12 healthy young people rode a stationary bike for 90 minutes at a very slow pace, followed by a 6-minute interval of 40 seconds of hard pedaling followed by 20 seconds of rest. Before, during, and after each session, researchers tracked his BDNF in people’s blood.
We also measured lactate levels. Muscles release lactic acid, often called lactic acid, during exercise, especially if it is intense. It travels to the brain as fuel and is absorbed by the brain.
Previous studies in mice suggest that this change in brain fueling is what triggers the production of BDNF to jump-start. They start pumping out more BDNF and the mice soon develop rodent cranial neurosis.
Now researchers have found signs of the same thing happening in people. Similar to the amount of BDNF in the blood during easy riding, people’s blood lactate levels rose slightly after about 30 minutes, but his 6 minutes of hard, fast pedaling and afterward saw a spike in lactate. , BDNF also surged. (Another part of this study examined the effect of fasting for 20 hours and found no effect on BDNF.)
These results suggest that “exercise is good for the brain, and longer or particularly intense exercise may maximize its benefits,” said the study’s lead author. said Travis Gibbons, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan.
Boagontier agreed. “There’s always been BDNF involved in exercise and the brain,” he says, noting that studies in his group found that both moderate and more vigorous exercise — brisk walking and brisk running — improved cognition. .
Gibbons explains how long BDNF stays elevated after exercise, the ideal type and amount of exercise to raise BDNF, whether the effect is the same in older and less healthy men and women, and why fasting is so important. He pointed out that many questions remain, such as whether to do so. In this experiment he did not increase BDNF. He and his Boisgontier are planning or underway a follow-up investigation.
But so far, the research shows that exercise, whether fast or slow, should definitely protect our ability to think.
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