Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

directorsblog.nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 186 posts

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#121

Post by nazgul17 »

searine wrote: post #71
mywittyname wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, you're probably learning during that time. Think about how young animals play: they practice a lot of the skills they need to survive. It builds dexterity, coordination, reflexes and strength. Evolutionary speaking, those animals whose brains go into "extra learning mode" during exercise likely had a huge advantage over their peers whose brains didn't. Their brains picked up on skills related to hunting and sur…

You two are wildly speculating. The fact is that none of this greatly influences reproductive fitness, so it is unlikely to be acted on by evolution. The effect is likely just biochemical coincidence. Repair enzymes in one part of the body effecting another.

I agree that it is speculation, but the evolutionary advantage is pretty clear there: getting extra learning during fights increases your chances of survival in the next fight.

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#122

Post by pizza »

brahmwg wrote: post #119
schappim wrote: post #103

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. [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14587299

That's assuming the unscrupulous spam artists pushing nootropics and smart-pills even care about the adverse effects of the ingredients they're selling. And most of their target consumers will be too wooed by the use of a scientific term like 'cathepsin-b' to bother with their own due diligence.

Lebanese proverb - "If a rich man eats a snake, people call it wisdom; if a poor man does the same thing, people call it derangement."

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#123

Post by xyience »

freehunter wrote: post #79
TeMPOraL wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or piss them off. Exercise is tiring and painful and time-consuming (especially if you count in after-exercise showers). Also, I don't like the whole culture around exercising and fitness. Gimme a damn pill or something. More seriously though, I really find no pleasure in exercise and would like to approach it in the most cost-effective way (i.e. maximum benefit for minimum time used). Any hints on exercise regime op…

You know what's more painful? Dying of a heart attack. Being bedridden. Joint failure. The inability to walk a few city blocks. Diabetes. Having to ride in a mobility scooter. Or even the inability to keep pace with your children when they're playing.

These things aren't inevitable, scaring people into exercise won't work. But even if they were, it wouldn't be terrible to die '"on my back, lying on my many rolls of fat, scarcely uttering a word, taking labored breaths, and eating my fill," for of all the ways a man might die, an excess of luxury was the only truly happy death'. (From http://www.dimensionsmagazine.com/dimtext/kjn/people/heavies...)

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#124

Post by nstj »

pizza wrote: post #122
brahmwg wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's assuming the unscrupulous spam artists pushing nootropics and smart-pills even care about the adverse effects of the ingredients they're selling. And most of their target consumers will be too wooed by the use of a scientific term like 'cathepsin-b' to bother with their own due diligence.

Lebanese proverb - "If a rich man eats a snake, people call it wisdom; if a poor man does the same thing, people call it derangement."

English speaking equivalent:

_"Wealthy people with quirks are called eccentric. Poor people are called crazy"_

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#125

Post by Florin_Andrei »

searine wrote: post #81
quantumhobbit wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You are assuming Hunter/Gatherers expend more energy than modern humans, which is not true ( http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.... ) Physical activity levels were also within a standard deviation of one another (between western and h/g populations). The brain evolved in similar conditions to modern man. I would argue current conditions are far better for the brain in terms of good nutrition…

Any study that shows present-day humans (at least those living in Western societies) to get the same amounts of exercise as any other culture is bound to be deeply flawed.

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#126

Post by rmtew »

megalodon wrote: post #80
TeMPOraL wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to minimize time, I want to maximize the benefit/time ratio, where time includes maintenance expenses (like showering, getting to the gym) as well. I.e. if jogging every day for an hour provides X "fitness points", but you can also get those X "fitness points" by doing e.g. weightlifting 3 times a week, I prefer to go for the second option. It can be painful - I won't like it, but when I work out I don't…

I'm not an expert, but jogging every day for an hour seems excessive. Running for half an hour (~5km) 3 times a week will get you a long way and it is one of the best exercises there is. I'd argue it's better than weightlifting because you activate (almost) the whole body and it's free.

Make that 7km, at 7km/hr, 3 times a week and I believe you hit the sweet spot of the Danish study that came out a couple of years ago.

If I recall correctly, it monitored ~20000 people over ~19 years, and provided bell curves of the best benefit.

I used to jog every day for an hour, and it was bliss. I miss it. Any day I don't get up and go for a run, I feel like I am worse off for it. But I'm trying to migrate to the above.

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#127

Post by Retra »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #125
searine wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are assuming Hunter/Gatherers expend more energy than modern humans, which is not true ( http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.... ) Physical activity levels were also within a standard deviation of one another (between western and h/g populations). The brain evolved in similar conditions to modern man. I would argue current conditions are far better for the brain in terms of good nutrition…

Any study that shows present-day humans (at least those living in Western societies) to get the same amounts of exercise as any other culture is bound to be deeply flawed.

How do you know this?

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#128

Post by apalmer »

ethanbond wrote: post #98
mathattack wrote: post #96

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.

Probably because you're talking about academic success which is only loosely correlated to intelligence, and almost entirely not correlated to "brain health." "Brain health," as it's used in this article, would also contribute to coordination, muscle control, and various other things that would benefit athletes in ways that are totally opaque to you or me. The article doesn't say exercise makes you smarter , and even…

So many people in this thread trying to figure out reason for the evolutionary connection between excersize and brain health... And you hit it so effortlessly... Seems obvious

Re: Exercise Releases Brain-Healthy Protein

#130

Post by TillE »

pc86 wrote: post #37
searine wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Maybe you should be asking the opposite question like why should evolution reward sedentary life? If you can live a sedentary lifestyle and still produce children, then evolution doesn't care. In fact, an indoors lifestyle is much more fit in the longterm than a life of hard labor. Evolution isn't trying to create the Platonic Ideal of a human. It just is a thoughtless mechanism to efficiently reproduce DNA.

> If you can live a sedentary lifestyle and still produce children, then evolution doesn't care. Hunter/gatherer humanity did not have the luxury of a sedentary lifestyle, so it did have a negative impact on your ability to produce children for a long time. > In fact, an indoors lifestyle is much more fit in the longterm than a life of hard labor. I think "hard labor" is a bit extreme, but even so, working a physical…

> better for your overall health

Again, evolution does not care. As long as you can survive to about 40 (long enough to raise children), it makes no difference.

Post reply on HN