#03: Exercise: The Brain-Body Connection

Post Preview: Today, we’ll be covering the ins & outs of how exercise improves not only the body’s health, but the brain’s! Training your muscles, heart, & lungs translates directly into healthier (and younger) brains that are robust and free of disease. Let’s dive in!

Exercise makes you smarter. One such way is through BDNF.

BDNF stands for brain-derived neurotrophic factor — a key component of the brain that facilitates learning & memory. Exercise has the ability to express large amounts of BDNF which activates several pathways described in this study and influences “synaptic plasticity,” or in layperson terms, the connections between all the neurons in your brain. More connections = better processing speed, learning potential, & establishing memories. In essence, exercise will increase your intelligence. Cramming for a test or struggling to learn a new concept? Take a break and get your heart rate up! The acute and long-term effects may surprise you.

Exercise reduces cognitive decline associated with neurodegenerative diseases like dementia.

Dementia is an umbrella term for loss of cognitive function & memory to a degree that severely interferes with daily life. Alzheimer’s disease is a better known derivative of dementia with one of its main features being degradation of the hippocampus — a brain structure responsible for memory.

Exercise has the ability to not only slow this disease progression, but reverse it! This randomized controlled trial with 120 older adults demonstrates how regular aerobic exercise (running, cycling, swimming, etc.) can increase the size of the hippocampus, effectively reversing age-related loss in volume by up to 2 years.

In other words, exercise keeps the mind sharp well into later years of life!

Exercise ameliorates symptoms of anxiety & depression.

We all know that exercise is good for you, but did you know how powerful of an anxiolytic and antidepressant it can be? Another RCT examined a 12-week exercise intervention program for 286 patients with anxiety and depression and found a significant reduction in symptoms and clinically meaningful improvements (meaning symptoms decreased from moderate/severe to mild, woohoo!). I highlight this to show how just exercising 3x/week lead to large changes in one’s mental well-being. Now imagine combining this with a variety of other therapies involving proper sleep, nutrition, and meditative practices — the changes would be huge!

Wrapping it up…

I’ll be diving more into building appropriate exercise programs to tackle all components of fitness in the future, but for the time being, each of the studies aimed for performing movement just a few times a week. Whether it’s resistance training with weights, or performing sustained aerobic work, there are appreciable differences in one’s mental clarity, stress levels, and overall happiness when exercising regularly!

That’s all for today! Thanks for reading and take care,

Jared Hathaway