Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: Stuga40 leading outdoor exercise during the pandemic in Stockholm.

I’ve been looking into the fitness offerings now available to me. There is quite a variety, including an exercise class specifically designed to boost brain health. I hope to try everything, as I keep reading that exercise does a lot more than build muscles.

For example, Gretchen Reynolds wrote at the Washington Post, “New findings from a 350,000-person study make the strongest case yet that exercise improves cognition. 

“To build a better brain, just exercise. That’s the message of two important new studies of how physical activity changes our minds. In one, scientists delved into the lives, DNA and cognition of thousands of people to show that regular exercise leads to much sharper thinking.

“Another study helps explain why exercise is good for the brain. Researchers found that just six minutes of strenuous exertion quintupled production of a neurochemical known to be essential for lifelong brain health. …

“These studies reinforce the idea that ‘absolutely, exercise is one of the best things you can do’ for your brain, said Matthieu Boisgontier, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, who oversaw one of the studies.

“The first inklings that exercise remodels brains and minds came decades ago in mouse studies. Active, running animals in these experiments scored much higher on rodent intelligence tests than sedentary mice, and their brain tissues teemed with elevated levels of a substance known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF, often referred to as ‘Miracle-Gro’ for the brain. BDNF prompts the creation and maturation of new brain cells and synapses. It bulks up brains.

“Studies in people have since established that exercise also raises BDNF levels in our bloodstreams, although it’s harder to look inside our brains and see if it rises there. Multiple, large-scale epidemiological studies, meanwhile, have linked more exercise to better memories and thinking skills and less risk for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.

“Qualms have lingered, though, about just how potent exercise really is for our brains. … Many human studies of exercise and cognition have been too small or otherwise limited to show persuasive benefits for brain health from working out.

“The study from Boisgontier and his colleagues, published [in March] in Scientific Reports, uses a novel and complex type of statistical analysis to go beyond traditional observational research and firmly establish that exercise does improve your brain skills.

“They turned to DNA and Mendelian randomization, a recently popularized method of using genetic variations to characterize and sort people. We each are born with or without certain snippets of DNA, some of which are known to contribute to a likelihood of being physically active. From before birth, we are, in effect, randomized by nature to be someone who is or isn’t prone to move. Other gene snippets play a similar role in cognition.

“By cross-checking the cognitive scores of people who have or lack the exercise-promoting snippets against those of people with the gene variants related to cognition, scientists can discern the extent to which exercise contributes to thinking skills. … People with a genetic predisposition to exercise typically did exercise, they found, and scored better on tests of thinking, if their exercise was at least moderate, comparable to jogging.

“And, yes, you can get brain benefits from exercise even if you don’t have the gene snippets. …

“The other new study, although comparatively small, may help explain how exercise keeps your brain healthy.

“In this experiment, 12 healthy, young people rode an exercise bike at a very leisurely pace for 90 minutes, followed by six minutes of intervals consisting of 40 seconds of all-out pedaling interspersed with 20 seconds of rest. Before, during and after each session, researchers tracked BDNF in people’s blood.

“They also measured levels of lactate. Muscles release lactate, often called lactic acid, during exercise, especially if it’s strenuous. It can travel to and be sucked up by the brain as fuel. … During easy riding, lactate levels rose slightly in people’s blood after about 30 minutes, as did the amounts of BDNF in their blood. But during and after the six minutes of hard, fast pedaling, lactate soared and so did BDNF.”

More at the Post, here.