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Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#131

Post by partyboat1586 »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #130
partyboat1586 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do free climbing? Or simulated life and death?

I free climb. I don't "free solo", but I do "rope solo" where I am leading up with nobody but myself to manage the rope. Most of the time the climbing I do is not really "perform or die", but I've been climbing a lot of easier stuff where there's no real way to protect anything... so I end up "running it out" and a failure would be deadly. So, like technical climbing moves with a 30M potential fall if I slip, but a f…

Nice. I've got a story about free climbing. The only time I did free climbing was as a teenager. I climbed up a small 30ft vertical cliff edge, no ropes. You might survive that height onto grass but below was sharp rocks and crashing waves.

There were enough footholds and handholds most of the way but I was stretching to get them and at one point my left foot slipped and I was left hanging on the pressure of my right foot and right arm pressed diagonally against weak holds, left side of my body dangling. There wasn't enough grip on my hand to hang by my right arm and I wouldn't have been able to balance on my right foot so I needed both to stay perfectly put, the right hand side of my body like an extended piston jammed between two points, grip slipping. I let go with my right hand then pushed off the right foothold as much as I could on the loose foot grip, got a little air while swinging my left hand up to get the next hold. Grabbing the hold I quickly pulled up my feet get access to higher footholds, body scrunched up to use them they were so close to the new handholds. Then with my feet in position I pushed my body up to get access to two new handholds and was back in a stable position.

I made it to the top but in that moment when my foot slipped I felt my heart drop so suddenly I never felt more focused in my life on the actions I was going to take next.

Dumb move to start it I guess but I was a bored teenager and wanted to challenge myself. I'd climbed rocks and stuff on the coast but never actually scaled a cliff before that point. Never did it again, never got propper training to learn good technique. Shame really because I had an affinity with it.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#132

Post by GarvielLoken »

newnewpdro wrote: post #26

This is something I've observed personally, especially with running and mountain biking. It had me pondering if perhaps humans evolved to become smarter in response to these frequent physical stressors. Like if we find ourselves regularly having to outrun predators and/or chasing prey to survive, it would probably be advantageous to grow smarter and depend less on endurance and speed. So I've been taking an attitude…

" if we find ourselves regularly having to outrun predators"

Lol, humans will only run from a predator one time. This is not Hollywood, you don't outrun jaguars, bears or wolf packs.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#133

Post by throwaway_tech »

phonypc wrote: post #93
throwaway_tech wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does it say anything about people growing muscle when catabolic or losing fat when anabolic? Just because the processes don't happen simltaniously, doesn't mean you can't gain more muscle than fat (or gain more fat than muscle) or lose more muscle than fate (or lose more fat then muscle), I never said the two were done at the same rate, just the body will gain simultaneously or lose simultaneously...but the bod…

You've moved the goalposts IMO, from the idea of being able to simultaneously gain muscle and lose fat with any particular diet and exercise regimen, to being able to simultaneously gain muscle and lose fat at any particular point in time. The former being what everyone means when they say they lost fat and gained muscle, the latter being a mostly useless concept. But that study does implicitly contradict even the la…

>You've moved the goalposts IMO...

I think when using the word "simultaneously" I fairly implied I am talking about metabolism (growth/breakdown) with respect to a point in time not over time.

>The former being what everyone means when they say they lost fat and gained muscle...

Again interpreting me fairly... I don't think anyone argues fat/muscle can not be gained or lost at varying rates resulting in net gains and net losses respectively over time.

>the latter being a mostly useless concept.

No more than understanding chemical reactions result in release or taking in energy. Sure for most people broad sweeping changes to diet and exercise will result in positive net changes to weight and MBI...but to athletes trying to gain muscle while not losing cardio, body builders cutting weight for a show, MMA/boxers making weight for a fight...these useless concepts come into play. Further, its not just world class athletes, to even the average joe going to the gym, these concepts are important to aid in maximizing gains, minimizing recovery times and improving overall performance when working out.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#134

Post by throwaway_tech »

JamesBarney wrote: post #85
throwaway_tech wrote: post #19

>Less clear has been why physical activity affects the brain in the first place. I think the studies are looking at this backwards. Physical activity should probably be looked at as the natural state of humans and ask why lack of physical activity affects the brain. Then it probably makes a lot more sense, the brain is comprised of cells, just like muscles, that are either anabolic or catabolic. A lack of physical ex…

> A lack of physical exercise is going to put all cells, including brain cells, in a catabolic state the same as muscle atrophy will waste away muscles due to lack of physical activity. Why is this? Using your brain cells won't lead to muscle atrophy. From research we know physical activity is healthy for the brain, but there's no reason this should be the case from first principles. You can make the same argument in…

>Why is this? Using your brain cells won't lead to muscle atrophy.

Ever hear of marathon runners hitting the wall or bonking? That is the runner's body shutting down to preserve the remaining fuel to keep the braining running. That is the function of the brain is given priority over other organs and systems in the body when the brain/body are not fat adapted and glucose stores are running low.

>and if catabolism between muscles and the brain is linked then surely steroids will make people every smart by switching the entire body into anabolism from catabolism.

Certain muscle enhancing supplements due have recorded benefits to cognitive function, for example creatine (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29704637). That said "steroid" is a broad brush stroke without a specific meaning as far as actual chemicals/hormones go. Moreover, as we know "steroids" in the general sense typically work by enlarging cells in the body, which yes may have helpful and desired effects with respect to muscle growth, but negative effects in other areas (enlarged heart) so unnatural growth does not equal unbridled benefit...rather anabolism (growth) is a normal and natural process that also includes catabolism (breakdown).

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#135

Post by yahwrong »

throwaway_tech wrote: post #19

>Less clear has been why physical activity affects the brain in the first place. I think the studies are looking at this backwards. Physical activity should probably be looked at as the natural state of humans and ask why lack of physical activity affects the brain. Then it probably makes a lot more sense, the brain is comprised of cells, just like muscles, that are either anabolic or catabolic. A lack of physical ex…

> So naturally if you consider lack of exercise as the natural state of humans, sure it will appear physical activity improve brain function.

I think not wanting to do more work or exert more energy than needed is the natural state of all of nature. Nothing does anything more than what requires the least amount of energy. However since humans are at least somewhat self aware they can 'determine' regular exercise is ultimately less annoying or less energy than being obese, depressed, and with likely more medical problems.

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#136

Post by throwaway_tech »

labawi wrote: post #128
throwaway_tech wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Of course you can. I'd be happy to share my Google sheet of daily weight, losing about 0.06lb/day, and my BodPod measurements showing going from 28% to 20% body fat while gaining 2.5lbs of muscle mass. Sure your muscle/fat percentages changes over time. But you didn't simultaneously grow muscle and lose fat, that is not possible. >Drew Baye has several articles on losing fat while gaining muscle Again its done over…

I agree that (1) is plausible and probably true. (2) might be true in your training regiment, and also may be nearly true in most circumstances, i.e. a good approximation. Your theory of absolute anabolic vs. catabolic body state is absolutely bonkers. Biology does not work that way. Comprehend-able things are the simplified ones and every rule has exceptions.

>Your theory of absolute anabolic vs. catabolic body state is absolutely bonkers. Biology does not work that way.

That is exactly how physiology works (I think you may be mixing up chemical reactions with metabolic reactions). Its why when people talk about losing weight there is always a certain number of people who refer to the laws of thermodynamics (calories in/calories out), and generally that is true (calorie surplus = growth and calories deficient = break down).

Of course there are exceptions such as the body has hormones which cause certain exceptions like HGH which can trigger growth (anabolism) in caloric deficits or cortisol can cause breakdown (catabolism) in caloric surpluses.

Can you identify any metabolic pathway that is simultaneously both anabolic/catabolic?

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#137

Post by dartdartdart1 »

lordnacho wrote: post #56
rosybox wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the studies are looking at this backwards. Physical activity should probably be looked at as the natural state of humans and ask why lack of physical activity affects the brain. I wonder if there's a selfless gene in humans that reduces the reproductive fitness/longevity of humans that aren't pulling their weight for the group. I could imagine that a gene that shortens the life of a member in a group could…

Not silly at all. You could even relate the suicide of lower status males to this kind of mechanic. Or the grandmother hypothesis about why women have a menopause.

But both genders are prone to suicide, male especially, but that's more societal than genetic. If there is a comparison between equal situations between male and female, you got a point though. But most of the time, I'd say the median male suicide victim is in worse off situation than the median female victim, hollistically

Re: Evolutionary history and why physical activity is important for brain health

#138

Post by dartdartdart1 »

FabHK wrote: post #91

> we have developed a game designed to specifically challenge aspects of cognition that tend to decline with age and that are probably needed during foraging. In the game, players spatially navigate and complete attention and memory tasks while cycling at a moderate aerobic intensity level. Sounds interesting and potentially fun. And it might provide more motivation for exercise. Startup idea...

Or maybe host a tournament series where you host the top x amount of players and they all have to play while on a treadmill haha
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