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Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

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Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#11

Post by revelation »

jey wrote: post #3

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? 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 d…

As usual, evolution means there might just be no reason, certainly not one that is reasonable.

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#12

Post by igorgue »

Why do we have an article saying basically the same thing every single week here?

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.

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.

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#13

Post by quantumhobbit »

jey wrote: post #3

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? 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 d…

Prehistoric humans likely exercised as a matter of course. They weren't sedentary. The brain evolved assuming the condition of exercise. naturally occurring byproducts of exercise were just always there for the brain to use.

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#14

Post by [deleted] »

jey wrote: post #3

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? 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 d…

[deleted]

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#15

Post by foxxwinters »

jey wrote: post #3

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? 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 d…

There's interesting theories behind humans evolving as a distance running (endurance hunting) species, and brain size being required evolutionarily as a tracking mechanism (understanding footprints & getting in the prey's head to understand it's path).

The two work in concert because fast prey escapes line of sight and gets mixed up with each other easily, so human endurance becomes much less useful if you can't follow & wear down the appropriate target.

"Born to Run" is a fun summary/story about some of this science but there's more hard science out there too if you're interested.

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#16

Post by laxatives »

igorgue wrote: post #12

Why do we have an article saying basically the same thing every single week here? 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. 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.

Because an enormous chunk of the population still refuses to exercise and/or diet and articles like this help motivate some of that subset.

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#17

Post by aqwfgm »

jey wrote: post #3

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? 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 d…

Reason should be some kind of benefit. But honestly, I dont know, here are just some facts.

You need to see the connection of systems. Neuromuscular connection of basal ganglia: central part of brain - neural pathway - muscle - and then feeling of movement going back to the brain through hypothalamus and to other areas - from hypothalamus it goes to brain like a shotgun fire.

The more you do the same movement the more you fire up the same lines. In order to get faster and more effective movement you add additional channels for signal transport in neuronal connections {this happens through release of BDNF, which induces insertion of new channels, for faster transmission}. This molecule happen to influence formation of memory, survival of neurons and supress your desire to eat.

There has been an article from 1998 about reduced cathepsin, which happens to reduce this BDNF. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9514826)

Sooo, again, I dont know, but this seems a bit like a side effect of firing up those circuits, because more or less the same way works memory formation (long-term memory potentiation). I would guess here plays a role effect of neigborhood - niche influencing neurons sitting next to those active pathways.

BTW. Also movement should increase your bloodflow, waste created by neurons is now removed much faster, this should go the same for neurotrasmitters - molecules transmitting signal which just flow around and act as signal interference, thus removing part of interference and now you can fire clear signal.

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#18

Post by davnn »

Are there any studies on what kind of exercise, or what kind of intensity is most beneficial to overall or mental health?

Edit: Got back to my laptop and did some research myself.

Aerobic Exercise Training Increases Brain Volume in Aging Humans (and nonaerobic doesn't) -http://biomedgerontology.oxfordjournals.org/content/61/11/11...

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. - http://202.120.143.134/download/20090702135031_277199777813....

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. - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michelle_Ploughman/publ...

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... -http://www.jssm.org/research.php?id=jssm-12-502.xml

High intensity interval training evokes (slightly) larger serum BDNF levels compared to intense continuous exercise. - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nicole_Wenderoth/public...

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) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314337/

The effects of acute exercise on cognitive performance: A meta-analysis - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yu_Kai_Chang/publicatio...

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.

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#20

Post by cwingrav »

igorgue wrote: post #12

Why do we have an article saying basically the same thing every single week here? 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. 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.

If you read it as "Good Morning America" of tech, it will appear that way. The article is reporting on new evidence of one particular mechanism of how exercise and the brain work. It's complex and each weekly article expands on our understand. That's why they're here each week; each week we learn something exciting and new.
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