Exercise has a similar effect to antidepressants on depression. This has been shown by previous research. Now Astrid Bj�rnebekk at Karolinska Institutet has explained how this can happen: exercise stimulates the production of new brain cells.
I think there are so many benefits to exercise... it affects everything!
and when you think about it, we evolved with being able to move (quickly a lot of times) as a very high priority. so, by exercising, we are fulfilling what evolution has built in for us to do.
I think that is why we get into so much trouble when we don't exercise.
I'm a natural couch potato- I love nothing better than curling up with good book and a cup of coffee. but.. I've learned exercise makes me feel so much better. so, even if I can't get to the gym, I will do jumping jacks in the kitchen till I have to stop. and some isometrics (some I've learned about from Gerry). something. something is always better than nothing.
WHEN he became a psychiatrist in the 1970s, John Ratey didn't expect to evolve into an exercise buff. But today, the Harvard University professor and expert in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder calls exercise the single most important tool people have to optimize brain function.
If you get your body in shape, he says, your mind will follow.
Ratey describes the emerging research on exercise and the brain in a book, "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain," which was published in January by Little, Brown.
His theory is straightforward: Humans evolved as physical creatures. When they're lulled into sedentary lives, their bodies -- and their brains -- get flabby from lack of physical exertion.
Exercise, particularly aerobic exercise, can improve cognitive performance, soften the effects of stress, help fend off addiction-related cravings and tone down the negative consequences of women's hormonal changes, Ratey says. When it comes to psychiatric disorders, he calls exercise "one of the best treatments we have."
Explain why you titled the book "Spark."
We're talking about the brain and changing it. Exercise is adding the spark to the brain. It gives energy to the brain.
We've heard that exercise increases neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. But what is brain-derived neurotrophic factor and why is it so important?
It is a very key linchpin for me and for the neuroscience community. In the '90s, we learned in a big study [by UC Irvine neuroscientist Carl Cotman] that exercise is one of the factors that delayed the onset of cognitive decline. That surprised a lot of people and no one knew how to account for it. The assumption was that exercise didn't act on the brain. We also knew there was a thing called BDNF -- brain-derived neurotrophic factor [a protein that helps build and maintain the cell circuitry in the brain]. Another study [also by Cotman] showed exercise elevates BDNF. It truly is Miracle-Gro for the brain.
Why does aerobic activity and complex motor activity, such as martial arts or dance, produce different effects in the brain?
The more complicated the exercise, the more challenging it is. You're challenging the learning and focusing parts of your brain as well as doing the aerobics. It optimizes the brain to learn.
Which is better to do?
The ideal exercise plan would include both exercise that keeps you learning and [exercise that] keeps you moving -- and keeps the challenge up. Challenge is something that we should all be striving for. It's the key to a long and healthy life.
Is walking helpful for the brain?
Even moving a little bit, such as walking very slowly, causes some increase in heart rate, and it does help. But volume and intensity are different. If you're going to do one, limit the volume and increase the intensity. . . . Intensity is important for the benefits to the brain. Most of the studies showing the benefit of exercise on depression were of people doing brisk walking. That might be at 65% to 75% of maximum heart rate. But that really is the level where you're just beginning to get a benefit.
Why is morning the best time to exercise?
I think morning is such a good time because it helps you start the day off correctly. Your attention system is turned up and on. But you're still going to get quite a bit of benefit from exercising in the evening.
You recommend exercise for depression, anxiety and addictions. But telling someone who is addicted or depressed to exercise sounds as if it's trivializing the problem, doesn't it?
It might. I certainly would consult a physician first if you're depressed or if you need someone watching you. I'm not opposed to medicine at all. I think what is revolutionary is the new science that exercise may be the best second treatment you can use -- in conjunction with whatever treatment you're already doing. Exercise improves cognitive behavior therapy and it's a good partner to antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications.
Why does exercise help people with ADHD so much?
It is a very useful tool for ADHD. They may focus better and be less impulsive. People feel less like they have to move [making them less fidgety]. With exercise, you've changed things in the brain.
How big an effect can regular aerobic exercise have on cognitive decline related to aging?
The evidence on the benefits of exercise on cognitive decline really started the whole ball rolling. It has been studied so much. It certainly has a big impact, delaying cognitive decline by as much as seven to 10 years. It plays a huge role in maintaining and regaining cognitive function.
So exercise is the best thing to do if you're worried about memory loss and cognitive decline during aging?
No. 1 is exercise. No. 2 is learn and connect with other people. The ideal prescription is to do the exercise with someone. A social event has a positive effect with exercise and learning.
“The data show that regular moderate exercise increases your ability to battle the effects of disease,” Dr. Moffat said in an interview. “It has a positive effect on both physical and mental well-being. The goal is to do as much physical activity as your body lets you do, and rest when you need to rest.”
In years past, doctors were afraid to let heart patients exercise. When my father had a heart attack in 1968, he was kept sedentary for six weeks. Now, heart attack patients are in bed barely half a day before they are up and moving, Dr. Moffat said.
The core of cardiac rehab is a progressive exercise program to increase the ability of the heart to pump oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood more effectively throughout the body. The outcome is better endurance, greater ability to enjoy life and decreased mortality.
The same goes for patients with congestive heart failure. “Heart failure patients as old as 91 can increase their oxygen consumption significantly,” Dr. Moffat said.
Aerobic exercise lowers blood pressure in people with hypertension, and it improves peripheral circulation in people who develop cramping leg pains when they walk — a condition called intermittent claudication. The treatment for it, in fact, is to walk a little farther each day.
In people who have had transient ischemic attacks, or ministrokes, “gradually increasing exercise improves blood flow to the brain and may diminish the risk of a full-blown stroke,” Dr. Moffat said. And aerobic and strength exercises have been shown to improve endurance, walking speed and the ability to perform tasks of daily living up to six years after a stroke.
As Randi knows, moderate exercise cuts the risk of developing diabetes. And for those with diabetes, exercise improves glucose tolerance — less medication is needed to control blood sugar — and reduces the risk of life-threatening complications.
Perhaps the most immediate benefits are reaped by people with joint and neuromuscular disorders. Without exercise, those at risk of osteoarthritis become crippled by stiff, deteriorated joints. But exercise that increases strength and aerobic capacity can reduce pain, depression and anxiety and improve function, balance and quality of life.
Likewise for people with rheumatoid arthritis. “The less they do, the worse things get,” Dr. Moffat said. “The more their joints move, the better.”
Exercise that builds gradually and protects inflamed joints can diminish pain, fatigue, morning stiffness, depression and anxiety, she said, and improve strength, walking speed and activity.
Exercise is crucial to improving function of total hip or knee replacements. But “most patients with knee replacements don’t get intensive enough activity,” Dr. Moffat said.
Water exercises are particularly helpful for people with multiple sclerosis, who must avoid overheating. And for those with Parkinson’s, resistance training and aerobic exercise can increase their ability to function independently and improve their balance, stride length, walking speed and mood.
Resistance training, along with aerobic exercise, is especially helpful for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; it helps counter the loss of muscle mass and strength from lack of oxygen.
In the February/March issue of ACE Certified News, Natalie Digate Muth, a registered dietitian and personal trainer, emphasized the value of a good workout for people suffering from depression. Mastering a new skill increases their sense of worth, social contact improves mood, and the endorphins released during exercise improve well-being.
“Exercise is an important adjunct to pharmacological therapy, and it does not matter how severe the depression — exercise works equally well for people with moderate or severe depression,” wrote Ms. Muth, who is pursuing a medical degree at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Feel-Good Hormones
Healthy people may have difficulty appreciating the burdens faced by those with chronic ailments, Dr. Nancey Trevanian Tsai noted in the same issue of ACE Certified News. “Oftentimes, disease-ridden statements — like ‘I’m a diabetic’ — become barricades that keep clients from seeing themselves getting better,” she said, and many feel “enslaved by their diseases and treatments.”
But the feel-good hormones released through exercise can help sustain activity.
“With regular exercise, the body seeks to continue staying active,” wrote Dr. Tsai, an assistant professor of neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. She recommended an exercise program tailored to the person’s current abilities, daily needs, medication schedule, side effects and response to treatment.
She urged trainers who work with people with chronic ailments to start slowly with easily achievable goals, build gradually on each accomplishment and focus on functional gains. Over time, a sense of accomplishment, better sleep, less pain and enhanced satisfaction with life can become further reasons to pursue physical activity.
“Even if exercise is tough to schedule,” Dr. Moffat said, “you feel so much better, it’s crazy not to do it.”
and when you think about it, we evolved with being able to move (quickly a lot of times) as a very high priority. so, by exercising, we are fulfilling what evolution has built in for us to do.
Good comment, however whilst humans are built for movement, unfortunately lazyness is also genetic / hereditary in many cases.
People don't walk as much as they used to, as things like Cars allow people to drive several yards, to get some Milk or a newspaper.
Then some will claim they need a car to get all their shopping in, despite many supermarkets now offering home delivery, or many people being able to get their shopping on a bus.
However some will not be satisfied walking when they can, or getting a bus when they can, which still requires walking several yards to the nearest stop, and several yards when they get off. That's clearly too much hard work for some.
Unfortunately if you look back at early humans. Most Neanderthal or even Cro-magnon females were homemakers, and man hunted for food.
Centuries passed and as soon as improvements were made in food management, I.E captive animal management, and induced plant matter cultivation, most of humankind learned to use their lazy genes.
Man didn't need to hunt, as he could get his end product off someone else, who only had to walk to a nearby enclosed space, and do away with a living animal.
In cases where plant matter was concerned, a longer more arduous process of gathering the end product was required, but most humans didn't have to do that, the few remaining more energetic ones did, so again lazyitis set in.
It's true humans are built to move, but then that's no surprise, because any living thing, even single celled Ameobas move, and other microscopic things like Sperm, Viruses, Microbes etc etc. things that give or threaten life.
So even then, humans are lazy. We didn't evolve movement, it was given to us from the start. Other creatures worked harder than us to develop methods of swimming, slithering, climbing and flying, all of which Amoebas couldn't do, save for possibly swimming.
Humans therefore by their very journey along the evolutionary path, are quite simply one of the laziest species in history.
Ironic that humans owe our very existances to creatures like Primates, for being there to help us on that final stage of evolution, and some people in this life repay them, by eating them, killing them for sport or financial reasons, or ruining their habitat, and spoiling their existance in the name of consumerism.
We even got lazy, at not being bothered to control our darker desires for greed, power and wealth. The worst thing apes do, (apart from fighting, something we do all too well, thanks to evolution of warfare), is possibly sleep around, and cheat on a mate.
We've evolved too many horrible traits as a species, and those who should have, became too lazy to try and control these dark urges, as they just enjoyed them too much, however big or small they were.
Depending on how you look at it, we are either the best or worst species in living history, and yet we're still lazy.
There are still people who drive everywhere when most don't need to, or at least not as often, drop rubbish when they get bins to use, and don't do anything environmentally conscious, even though there's plenty of science, evidence, TV and media reports about Icecaps, temperatures, Carbon Footprints, ways to improve the world for all etc etc.
I even saw a woman some months ago, smoking and she was standing right next a bin, I mean millimetres away, and still she dropped her end on the pavement. The absolute height of laziness. If she'd been any closer her head would have been in the bin.
I admit I could be "greener" than I should be, and only started recycling last year, when it was forced on me, with all the different bins that need to be used, although I do walk a lot and get the bus everywhere, no longer drive, so that in some ways contributes to a better environment.
Yes it's true Scorpio, humankind can move, in the ways we do, and exercise does fulfill a function people are designed to do, but let's no forget, it's purely down to the hard work, and trials and tribulations of some living species, (some of which are now extinct, which is our fault), that we can do that at all.
Would be interesting to see though how many totally lazy people, would be less lazy, if they met a Paraplegic, who'd give anything to have some lazy persons good legs. Might make some people appreciate the gift of movement more .
Boss.. I'm not quite sure what your point is. but.... speak for yourself. I know many people that work at keeping healthy by making exercise a regular part of their life.
I think Harry's point is if you exercise, not only will you help your body, but your mind will improve.
Harry.. the type of exercise is not mentioned in the first article, but Astrid Bj�rnebekk MD has several studies on the effect of running on the mind.
I know that when I was running regularly.. if you could call my turtle jogging running.. I would be pooped by the end.. but then feel very good. and.. I'm not talking about runner's high.
I think the running - and a lot of other types of aerobic exercise - is stress reducing. By the time you are done, an tension buildup that you had before running is gone. Imo, the sweating which works the lymphatic glands, and evidently helps with removing toxins.. it just is a good thing. makes you feel goood.
Thanks for the links. I hope walking will accomplish many of the same benefits. I just feel, that for me at least, it may be a better way to go.
As a side-note, I recently got my dad (and mom ... if she'll try it out ... fingers crossed) a device, that Dr. Stephen Sinatra is promoting. My dad suffers from poor circulation to his lower legs (it's genetic). He exercises but still has this genetic handicap - his mother had it even worse.
The device, known as a Healthy Swinger, looks kind of goofy but it was well-reviewed by several Amazon.com customers (which is where I bought it) and I do value, for the most part, Dr. Sinatra's P.O.V.
Harry.. I just referenced running because of that researcher. Frankly, I think any exercise is beneficial.
I started with walking... I couldn't walk my dog a few blocks without having to stop and catch my breath. but.. you get better, and start to need more.
I have to walk for an hour at least to feel it anymore.. but the benefit of being at this place is just that.. I can walk for a long time easily. and, as long as you can walk, you won't need a wheelchair, right?
Harry, thank you for the site to the healthy swinger. I was wanting to order that for a friend of mine who cant walk.. You saved me alot of searching....
This article will be great news for my grandchildren who (according to the schools) are dealing with the adhd... Hopefully the parents can start working in a running program for them!
__________________ God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~
I'll post whatever feedback I can get out of the folks. They're pretty good about accurately assessing new supplements and a variety of health-related gadgets I give them.
I'm hoping it will not only help with the circulatory/lymphatic system(s) but that it will also help them to feel like they've received a "10-minute full-body massage".
We shall see. When I go visit, I'll try it out and give a personal review as well. If I really like it ... I'll take it with me. Kidding.
__________________
You're officially invited to come visit my new blog: www.healthyfellow.com
Exercise and New Brain Cell Growth
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