Exercise: For Your Brain

Upending the cliché of muscleheads, scientists at the Laboratory of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging recently set out to examine whether changes in muscles prompted by exercise might subsequently affect and improve the brain’s ability to think.

Lab animals and people generally perform better on tests of cognition after several weeks of exercise training, and studies have shown that over time, running and other types of endurance exercise increase the number of neurons in portions of the brain devoted to memory and learning. But the mechanisms that underlie this process remain fairly mysterious. Do they start within the brain itself? Or do messages arrive from elsewhere in the body to jump-start the process?

What was the gist of the results?

And as it turned out, muscles did affect the mind. After a week of receiving either of the two drugs (and not exercising), the mice performed significantly better on tests of memory and learning than control animals that had simply remained quiet in their cages. The effects were especially pronounced for the animals taking Aicar.

The results, published in the journal Learning and Memory, showed that the drugged animals’ brains also contained far more new neurons in brain areas central to learning and memory than the brains of the control mice, an effect found by microscopic examination.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/how-working-the-muscles-may-boost-brainpower/

There are interesting take aways in the linked summary of this study, but the big one for me is - "it's about 50% half mental", as an ex-athlete was reported to have said.  If you want to be your smartest, feel your best, and be at your best health, exercise is essential.  

Exercise Does A Brain "Good"

It’s widely accepted among scientists that regular exercise transforms the brain, improving the ability to remember and think. And a growing and very appealing body of science has established that exercise spurs the creation of new brain cells, a process known as neurogenesis. But just how jogging or other workouts affect the structure of the brain has remained enigmatic, with many steps in the process unexplained.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/how-testosterone-may-alter-the-brain-after-exercise/

The BLUF of this study of exercise and the brain:  evidence suggests that even moderate aerobic exercise stimulates production of sex hormones which enable neurogenesis in the brain.  The mechanisms are not crystal clear, as I'm not sure how they differentiate between BDNF (brain derived neurotropic factor) and the sex hormones.  

Of note, most research is done with folks that are doing low intensity (aerobic) exercise, but when high intensity exercise is tested (with a caveat here that intensity for endurance activity is still low, even if termed "high".  By definition, endurance means aerobic which means a max of 40% of total output) results are better on virtually every measure of physiology.

In summary, the masses have been getting it wrong for years - exercise makes you smarter, stronger, and sustains mood, but does little to make you lean.  Leanness results when you eat the right food, primarily by restricting carb intake to levels that do not destroy glycemic control.

Eat meat, vegetables, eggs, nuts and seeds, little starch or fruit, no sugar/wheat.