Why Your Brain Needs Exercise (scientificamerican.com) 47
Answering this question requires that we rethink our views of exercise. From a report: People often consider walking and running to be activities that the body is able to perform on autopilot. But research carried out over the past decade by us and others would indicate that this folk wisdom is wrong. Instead exercise seems to be as much a cognitive activity as a physical one. In fact, this link between physical activity and brain health may trace back millions of years to the origin of hallmark traits of humankind. If we can better understand why and how exercise engages the brain, perhaps we can leverage the relevant physiological pathways to design novel exercise routines that will boost people's cognition as they age -- work that we have begun to undertake. To explore why exercise benefits the brain, we need to first consider which aspects of brain structure and cognition seem most responsive to it.
When researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., led by Fred Gage and Henriette Van Praag, showed in the 1990s that running increased the birth of new hippocampal neurons in mice, they noted that this process appeared to be tied to the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF is produced throughout the body and in the brain, and it promotes both the growth and the survival of nascent neurons. The Salk group and others went on to demonstrate that exercise-induced neurogenesis is associated with improved performance on memory-related tasks in rodents. The results of these studies were striking because atrophy of the hippocampus is widely linked to memory difficulties during healthy human aging and occurs to a greater extent in individuals with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. The findings in rodents provided an initial glimpse of how exercise could counter this decline.
When researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., led by Fred Gage and Henriette Van Praag, showed in the 1990s that running increased the birth of new hippocampal neurons in mice, they noted that this process appeared to be tied to the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). BDNF is produced throughout the body and in the brain, and it promotes both the growth and the survival of nascent neurons. The Salk group and others went on to demonstrate that exercise-induced neurogenesis is associated with improved performance on memory-related tasks in rodents. The results of these studies were striking because atrophy of the hippocampus is widely linked to memory difficulties during healthy human aging and occurs to a greater extent in individuals with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. The findings in rodents provided an initial glimpse of how exercise could counter this decline.
That is why I took up wood working. (Score:5, Interesting)
I found my work becoming too humdrum and gust getting board too easily, which was in general lowering the quality of my work.
So I picked up wood working at home. Where I got to use my mind solving different problems learning new methods and tricks.
This in general has helped my mood, as well it offers new approaches to problems at work, which I found better ways of doing them.
Much like exercise, you have to keep on increasing the dosage for it to continue to get better.
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Run over any dead children in the street, dead of overwork? Thank a leftist if not
Starve to death while working 80+ hours last week? Thank a leftist
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I don't follow you.
Woodworking is a hobby done by anyone.
Anecdote (Score:3)
Another anecdote that springs to mind is that of Sri Aurobindo, who used to walk 8 hours every day doing meditation, undertaking exploration of consciousness on which many volumes have been written, while at the same time leading a party involved in the independence revolution in India.
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Of all the dirty tricks... (Score:5, Funny)
It's bad enough that lack of exercise will make me fat, did you have to tell me it would make me stupid too?
Merry Christmas!
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There's exercise... and then there's exercise... (Score:2, Interesting)
I recently pondered, why I hate exercise and sports so much.
And the result is: Because it is useless!
I noticed that I may be completely wrecked and tired after a day of constructing some wooden contraption, or building a house, or even just fucking a hot girl... but I feel *great*! And I wanted to do it all the way through! It was fun!
And then there's what we think of when we hear "exercise": Mind-numbingly repetitive motion in a bland room full of sweaty pain-compensation junkies, like it's still 1866!
Than
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I don't know actually, but I'm very sure that people 100,200,400,800,2000 years ago, did not "exercise", they just lived which meant to move.
Nowdays.. you need to run "in-place" in a room, full of other people, to get that movement. You need to ma
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Don't have time... you say??? The link is my ride to work...
Work is too far to ride a bicycle??? The link is 13 miles to work. That is the long way there too.. My ride home from work is 18 miles and is the really long way... https://connect.garmin.com/mod... [garmin.com]
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Oh... and I am also keeping
you also just showed the entire internet exactly where you live and where you work. it seems you could use some more exercise! :p
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Re: There's exercise... and then there's exercise. (Score:1)
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"
I don't know actually, but I'm very sure that people 100,200,400,800,2000 years ago, did not "exercise", they just lived which meant to move."
People haven't been around for a hundred trillion years, in fact the universe itself is less than 14 billion years old.
Re:There's exercise... and then there's exercise.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Here in the old world, it is safe to walk from place to place
Here in the new world, we walk wearing plate carriers, an AR15 and full military load-out. That's even better exercise.
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Re: It's just so BORING (Score:2)
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This is why I exercise. There are muscles I like to use and muscles I need to use. A solid exercise routine ensures tha
KISS methodology (Score:1)
"Do -the last even number prime before 100- jumps"
There, the proof that doing physical exercise your brain... How much will you pay me for the proof?
Stephen Hawking counter example? (Score:2)
Also, exercise and thinking both require energy. Shouldn't there be a supply/demand problem here?
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How would that make sense? Are you suggesting that an average person has some system or capability for telling the difference between a genius and an idiot?
A consensus here tells you something about public perceptions, it doesn't tell you anything about the subject of those feelings.
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Motivation! (Score:5, Interesting)
Have trouble motivating yourself to go for that walk every day? Get a beagle! Take him for a walk at the same time every day for a week, and you will **NEVER** be able to skip that walk for the next 15 years.
My wife is an incredible cook, the only reason why I'm not a shapeless blob is that those dogs walk my legs off twice a day.
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I walk a lot too, I wouldn't want to give it up, but if you do the math it burns no calories.
Moderate exercise has lots of health benefits, but only heavy exercise actually burns enough to affect your weight or how much food you can eat.
That won't cut it. (Score:2)
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Workouts are the typical Western solution to the fitness problem. There are other ways. Want to stress you lungs? Buy a brass or wind instrument and practice slowly for half an hour or more a day, focusing on your breathing rather than on the musicality of the piece.
Static isometric exercises can also do the trick. This type of exercises include load bearing yoga poses, such as the one where you stand on one leg (tree) or do a push-and-hold (plank, basically a static one cycle push-up held for half-a-minut
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Long walks, woodworking, sex, etc., are insufficient exercise to have a noticeable effect on your cognitive function... ... for at least 30 minutes...
There is your problem right there, your concept of "long" is too short, and you aren't good enough at sex or woodworking to see the benefits.
So this is how skynet is goiong to .... (Score:2)
... eliminate humans.
Who needs to do anything or even think with the future of AI and robotics.
Food for thought? (Score:1)
Of course excerise is very important. But so is the bacteria in our Gut.
It's becoming obvious that the gut Bacteria plays an active role in instructing the Brain and therefore the rest of the body.
So perhaps in the future we'll be offered a pill that keeps our Gut bacteria inline and then excerise together with visual, smell and audio stimulus will keep the whole body in fine fettle.
journalist speaking for everyone, again (Score:1)
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All the charity work, NGO, support going to "computers" and "code" did nothing for most nations over decades.
Sports would result in a more active population, work for sports related teaching.
A lot less money than buying all the new computers, software, apps, learn to code robot kits, networking... for students who will not recall much a month later.
Body=support system for your brain (Score:2)
Why Your Brain Needs Exercise (Score:1)
I prefer (Score:2)
and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] whenever my brain needs exercise