How Exercise Boosts Your Brain • Hacker News Board

Re: How Exercise Boosts Your Brain

#21

Post by cynest » Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 3:30 AM UTC

mrj wrote: post #16

lukifer wrote: post #14

Heart health is brain health. Simple as that.

Well, as a brief mention said in the article, any exercise benefit to the brain used to be thought of mainly as an increased blood flow and oxygen uptake. But more recent research is focused on the hippocampus and neurogenesis, actually growing new neurons by exercising. Unfortunately, there's no test that can actually prove the new cells are responsible for new learning. This happens to be the focus of my current re…

Cool. So might the new neurons be more for motor control than say, mathematics?

Re: How Exercise Boosts Your Brain

#22

Post by galdosd » Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 6:26 AM UTC

orangecat wrote: post #12

tomjen3 wrote: post #10

I must have seen a million of these "benefits of exercise" posts by now - everybody seems to think that exercise is a good thing, but making another post isn't going to change anything, people are still not going to exercise; making a drug that simulates the effects of exercise would change everything. So why aren't people working on that?

So why aren't people working on that? I would hope they are. Of course if something like that actually comes out there will be lots of pushback from those with overdeveloped Protestant work ethics. No pain no gain, it's "cheating" to just take a pill, etc.

Oh, but the situation is even worse than that-- the Protestant work ethic already caught you (or us, or many people, whatever).

I'm talking about the assumption that exercise is some sort of pain for gain tradeoff that you would suffer through in exchange for a later reward, but is itself unpleasant or undesirable without the health benefits. This insiduous paradigm seems to be everywhere in (at least) American culture.

And so the magic pill already exists! And there's no patent. No copay. No HMO can deny you it. And it's fun!

Re: How Exercise Boosts Your Brain

#23

Post by klipt » Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 7:33 AM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #10

I must have seen a million of these "benefits of exercise" posts by now - everybody seems to think that exercise is a good thing, but making another post isn't going to change anything, people are still not going to exercise; making a drug that simulates the effects of exercise would change everything. So why aren't people working on that?

They are, but it takes years to get from "tested on mice" to "safe for humans".

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0403/03.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25949447/#slice-2

When it does happen though, I think it'll be a massive breakthrough for public health. There are tons of diseases whose prevalence would be slashed just by raising the fitness level of the general population.

Re: How Exercise Boosts Your Brain

#24

Post by mrj » Sat, Aug 07, 2010, 5:13 PM UTC

cynest wrote: post #21

mrj wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as a brief mention said in the article, any exercise benefit to the brain used to be thought of mainly as an increased blood flow and oxygen uptake. But more recent research is focused on the hippocampus and neurogenesis, actually growing new neurons by exercising. Unfortunately, there's no test that can actually prove the new cells are responsible for new learning. This happens to be the focus of my current re…

Cool. So might the new neurons be more for motor control than say, mathematics?

Well, the hippocampus is related to long term memory and not motor control, as I understand it. So it's doubtful.

I'm having a hard time finding studies that adequately control for fitness level though. Most tend to focus on acute exercise. They run people for a while then immediately sit them down for a cognition test.

I'm more interested in the influence of long-term fitness level. That's not as often studied.