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

MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

sciencedaily.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 57 posts

Re: MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

#41

Post by thefz »

zmmmmm wrote: post #6

> brains that looked nearly a year younger Seems like a pretty small effect - if I'm 58 and I have the brain of a 57 year old, and to achieve that I did an entire year of exercise (as was done in this study) ... you'd have to evaluate it against many other things to decide if that was really the easiest way to achieve that result. I'm always suspicious of small effect sizes even when they are statistically significan…

> Seems like a pretty small effect - if I'm 58 and I have the brain of a 57 year old, and to achieve that I did an entire year of exercise (as was done in this study) ... you'd have to evaluate it against many other things to decide if that was really the easiest way to achieve that result.

Man, this website sometimes...

Re: MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

#42

Post by throwaway849830 »

RickJWagner wrote: post #3

That’s awesome! The benefits of exercise against aging, mental illness, etc are numerous and well documented. Everybody should do it.

> Everybody should do it.

34 years old male, not overweight, eating healthy. I kept reading that exercise is the best thing you can do and that everyone should do it, so I started running and cycling. Very short distances, very slowly and very gradually.

It made me feel horrible. Each time it would take me a few days to recover, feeling dizzy and mentally exhausted. I thought that I was just a bit out of shape so I kept going. Big mistake.

A few weeks ago I completely crashed with the dizziness and mental exhaustion staying constantly, leaving me unable to do basic things like standing for more than a few minutes at a time. Complete rest helped, after a few weeks I finally start to feel like myself again. Currently seeing doctors and doing a lot of checks, nothing obvious found so far.

The only reason I kept pushing is that I was reading everywhere that exercising is this amazing thing that is good for everyone. So at the moment I feel that this messaging should be toned down a bit.

PS: Long time HN user, using a throwaway as I don't want health stuff to be tied to me.

Re: MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

#43

Post by sfn42 »

throwaway849830 wrote: post #42
RickJWagner wrote: post #3

That’s awesome! The benefits of exercise against aging, mental illness, etc are numerous and well documented. Everybody should do it.

> Everybody should do it. 34 years old male, not overweight, eating healthy. I kept reading that exercise is the best thing you can do and that everyone should do it, so I started running and cycling. Very short distances, very slowly and very gradually. It made me feel horrible. Each time it would take me a few days to recover, feeling dizzy and mentally exhausted. I thought that I was just a bit out of shape so I k…

That's not normal. I'm sure your doctor's told you that too.

My first thought is that it may just be a severe case of being out of shape, I think you might be able to push through it. You didn't specify how long you kept it up but I would expect it to take at least a few weeks, maybe a few months before you really get up and running.

I would suggest that you keep trying, and taking it slower. Maybe instead of running and cycling just walk/hike. I find it much more comfortable to hike.

It's also useful to keep track of your pulse. There's a type of training called zone 2 training where the goal is to keep your pulse in "zone 2". That's quite low intensity training, but it's also very effective and much less taxing. Zone 2 depends on your resting and max pulse but it'll be something like 130-160.

I can also recommend rock climbing, particularly bouldering is very approachable. And of course weight lifting if that's more to your liking. You don't have to do cardio, there are many ways to be active.

I have had some issues with nausea while weightlifting, towards the end of a session I would get really nauseous. However that's just me being out of shape, after a week or two it subsides and it just feels good. I like the feeling of sore muscles.

Also, for me, activity is essential. When I'm not active I fall into a deep depression where everything feels harder. When I'm in shape I feel like myself, I have more energy, motivation and discipline, life feels easier. I don't think it's like this for everyone but I do think everyone benefits from exercise. Even if you have to fight through some bad feelings to get going.

Re: MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

#44

Post by sfn42 »

Mars008 wrote: post #25
RickJWagner wrote: post #3

That’s awesome! The benefits of exercise against aging, mental illness, etc are numerous and well documented. Everybody should do it.

If that was true athletes would be the youngest, mentally healthiest, and in many other ways better than average. But that's not the case if you look at them. My guess exercise is beneficial only to some level, after that it has a big toll on everything. Including IQ, mental and general health, and so on.

They are. Fit people are generally just better than unfit people in almost every way. More physically capable, fewer heath issues, more energy, more attractive, more disciplined, more intelligent and so on. Some of those are probably not entirely causal, for example bad health can prevent exercise. Lower intelligence is correlated with obesity. Getting fit takes discipline but it also builds discipline.

So yeah I'm pretty sure that if you compare 1000 fit people and 1000 unfit people you'll see a very clear difference in happiness, health, success in life etc.

We're not made to be sedentary.

Re: MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

#45

Post by port11 »

with wrote: post #23

Neat study, but I always chuckle at these, because has there ever been verified science that shows exercise is unhealthy ? (besides overtraining) The general consensus should just be exercising is good for you, that's it, done.

Good point, but has anyone shown that gravity doesn’t work in general relativity conditions? We move the needle of proof, such that the burden to disprove becomes harder. That seems fine by me, it’s nicer and nicer to see the benefits of exercise.

Re: MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

#46

Post by throwaway849830 »

sfn42 wrote: post #43
throwaway849830 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everybody should do it. 34 years old male, not overweight, eating healthy. I kept reading that exercise is the best thing you can do and that everyone should do it, so I started running and cycling. Very short distances, very slowly and very gradually. It made me feel horrible. Each time it would take me a few days to recover, feeling dizzy and mentally exhausted. I thought that I was just a bit out of shape so I k…

That's not normal. I'm sure your doctor's told you that too. My first thought is that it may just be a severe case of being out of shape, I think you might be able to push through it. You didn't specify how long you kept it up but I would expect it to take at least a few weeks, maybe a few months before you really get up and running. I would suggest that you keep trying, and taking it slower. Maybe instead of running…

I kept pushing running and cycling for a couple of months. I had to stop because it was making me feel too bad. I replaced it with hiking, walking and some misc exercises like stairs stepper. I kept that for another couple of months but eventually crashed even with this lighter effort.

Zone 2 while running and cycling was absolutely impossible for me. A light jog would make my heart rate climb to 190 bpm immediately. A small couple of percent incline on a bicycle, straight to 190 bpm. Obviously feeling horrible afterwards.

These last few weeks my resting heart rate went from ~60 to ~100. I saw two cardiologists, none found anything out of the ordinary. Got some beta blockers for the heart rate, which do work so at least I got that working, but no indication of what the actual problem is.

Which is too bad because besides feeling like shit afterwards, I actually enjoyed these activities a lot.

Re: MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

#48

Post by iammjm »

throwaway849830 wrote: post #42
RickJWagner wrote: post #3

That’s awesome! The benefits of exercise against aging, mental illness, etc are numerous and well documented. Everybody should do it.

> Everybody should do it. 34 years old male, not overweight, eating healthy. I kept reading that exercise is the best thing you can do and that everyone should do it, so I started running and cycling. Very short distances, very slowly and very gradually. It made me feel horrible. Each time it would take me a few days to recover, feeling dizzy and mentally exhausted. I thought that I was just a bit out of shape so I k…

Have you looked into Long Covid? Post-exertional_malaise is something a lot of people are reporting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_COVID https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-exertional_malaise

Re: MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

#49

Post by sfn42 »

throwaway849830 wrote: post #46
sfn42 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not normal. I'm sure your doctor's told you that too. My first thought is that it may just be a severe case of being out of shape, I think you might be able to push through it. You didn't specify how long you kept it up but I would expect it to take at least a few weeks, maybe a few months before you really get up and running. I would suggest that you keep trying, and taking it slower. Maybe instead of running…

I kept pushing running and cycling for a couple of months. I had to stop because it was making me feel too bad. I replaced it with hiking, walking and some misc exercises like stairs stepper. I kept that for another couple of months but eventually crashed even with this lighter effort. Zone 2 while running and cycling was absolutely impossible for me. A light jog would make my heart rate climb to 190 bpm immediately.…

This really isn't normal at all, just for the record. There is definitely something seriously wrong

Re: MRI scans show exercise can make the brain look younger

#50

Post by ytoawwhra92 »

sfn42 wrote: post #43
throwaway849830 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everybody should do it. 34 years old male, not overweight, eating healthy. I kept reading that exercise is the best thing you can do and that everyone should do it, so I started running and cycling. Very short distances, very slowly and very gradually. It made me feel horrible. Each time it would take me a few days to recover, feeling dizzy and mentally exhausted. I thought that I was just a bit out of shape so I k…

That's not normal. I'm sure your doctor's told you that too. My first thought is that it may just be a severe case of being out of shape, I think you might be able to push through it. You didn't specify how long you kept it up but I would expect it to take at least a few weeks, maybe a few months before you really get up and running. I would suggest that you keep trying, and taking it slower. Maybe instead of running…

> I think you might be able to push through it.

This is really awful advice.

People who are extremely unfit tend to have no frame of reference for what a productive workout feels like. They are highly likely to push themselves too hard and then not give their bodies enough recovery time. Encouraging people in this situation to "push through it" is setting them up for overtraining leading to injury, illness, or burnout.

Fatigue is one of the most important signals your body can give you. It's a clear communication that you've been pushing too hard and need to reduce the intensity of your efforts. Telling people to ignore that signal for "at least a few weeks" is at best going to be counter-productive for them and, at worst, dangerous.

Post reply on HN