Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study • Hacker News Board

Re: Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study

#71

Post by pc86 » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 3:12 PM UTC

daveguy wrote: post #57

theseatoms wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A single data point is hardly an argument.

I think he was pointing out that correlation does not equal causation. Strong legs => healthy brain is just silly. Could it be better eating habits => both? Just because they're twins doesn't mean one doesn't like their vegetables. Also, this data point is just as valid as the "Bill Gates jumped out of trash cans!" point.

As was stated elsewhere the most likely cause is that smart people are much more likely to take their health seriously, and part of that is some form of vigorous exercise.

Re: Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study

#72

Post by terryf » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 3:15 PM UTC

thewarrior wrote: post #34

tomp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in long-term memory, reasoning, attention, and problem-solving tasks I'm pretty sure the cause/effect is reversed here. It's more likely that people who are smart and have better focus/are less impulsive are more likely to take care of their health and exercise.

So how come Stephen Hawking isn't a mental slouch by now ?

How do you know he isn't? How do you know what his mental ability would have been if he could?

Re: Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study

#73

Post by percept » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 3:15 PM UTC

cronjobber wrote: post #37

Anecdotal confirmation: Bill Gates, who is widely believed to have a very healthy brain, in more youthful years used to perform silly jumping feats, like jumping out of garbage cans.

Pff, everybody knows he inherited his strong legs.

Re: Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study

#74

Post by uououuttt » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 3:23 PM UTC

kyllo wrote: post #61

codingdave wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Objectively? Because last I checked, the english language was flexible, with multiple definitions for most words. I looked a few up for "strength". I did not find any dictionary that solely defined it as the ability to move heavy objects.

Words have consensus meanings, and when you try to redefine them unilaterally you make it harder to communicate. Strength in this context is defined as the ability to exert physical force (as in Newton's Second Law, force = mass x acceleration). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_strength

The word isn't being redefined. Endurance is the ability to continue exerting physical force over a long duration.

Re: Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study

#75

Post by brlewis » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 3:25 PM UTC

terryf wrote: post #72

thewarrior wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how come Stephen Hawking isn't a mental slouch by now ?

How do you know he isn't? How do you know what his mental ability would have been if he could?

You have a point. We don't know how well he would do "in long-term memory, reasoning, attention, and problem-solving tasks" used in studies. He might have particular difficulty with the attention tasks as his mind keeps wandering back to physics.

Re: Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study

#76

Post by danielrm26 » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 3:27 PM UTC

The whole causation / correlation thing is a big part of this, I think. Many will likely read this and think that there's brain power in your legs, when in fact it's most likely saying that leg health -> physical activity in general -> brain health.

I think the writing about the study should be more clear about this, as I'm sure the original work is.

Re: Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study

#77

Post by uououuttt » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 3:27 PM UTC

hyperchase wrote: post #36

DevX101 wrote: post #33

Strong legs are also associated with people who run a lot, which has been already shown to be associated with healthy brains. It's possible this study is a proxy for the common health advice of 'just do more cardio'

Or weightlifting, squatting and deadlifting heavy on a regular basis will give you substantially stronger legs than any runner.

Any runner? Sprinting is as good as anything for developing explosive leg strength. Of course, the best sprinters work lifting into their training as well.

Re: Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study

#78

Post by Lawtonfogle » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 3:29 PM UTC

codingdave wrote: post #55

kyllo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's endurance, which is objectively different from strength.

Objectively? Because last I checked, the english language was flexible, with multiple definitions for most words. I looked a few up for "strength". I did not find any dictionary that solely defined it as the ability to move heavy objects.

I took it to mean that the thing being described by the word endurance is objectively different than the thing being described by the word strength when not being used in the endurance sense. In a way saying that the measurement of a muscle's ability to repeated do the same amount of work before failure is a objectively different than the measurement of a muscle's ability to output a maximum amount of work for a single rep. Or another way, the stat that lets you lift a 1kg weight 200 times is objectively different from the stat that lets you lift a 200kg weight once. Related, but different.

As to if the word strength is objectively different from the word endurance, simply consider that one starts with a 's' and the other with an 'e'.

Re: Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study

#79

Post by stinos » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 3:40 PM UTC

padobson wrote: post #47

I go to therapy to manage my depression. I don't have a severe case, but it's bad enough that it affects my productivity at times. Once a year or so I'll have a bout where I am almost completely unable to function. The tools I use to manage depression are (wait for it) diet, exercise and prayer (or meditation, if you want to keep it secular). Exercise is particularly useful. Depression affects the mind, so it's diffi…

it's difficult to be self-aware about it

I don't have any difficulties myself with being self-aware about it at all, on the contrary. The major difficulty for me is using that knowledge to do something with it. Not sure what is worse: being depressed, or being depressed and knowing that you are and realizing all your thoughts are going downwards into the wrong spiral and not being able to do shit about it. Well, except hard exercise or meditation or long walks etc, but pure mindcontrol doesn't work :]

Re: Strong Legs Associated with Healthy Brains in Twin Study

#80

Post by mrfusion » Fri, Nov 20, 2015, 3:46 PM UTC

padobson wrote: post #62

andor wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spinach, that's interesting. Apparently, tryptophan + vitamin B6 + vitamin C converts to serotonin. https://thomasmcgregor.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/cure-depress...

Thanks for the link. I started on Spinach because my doctor suggested "leafy green vegetables". I tried kale first, but I prefer the taste of spinach. I most often eat it first thing in the morning as a shake: 90g spinach + 1 cup almond milk + half a frozen banana. According to the article, I may want to add some strawberries or oranges for more vitamin C.

Fresh spinach?