On the occasion of the 16th edition of Brain Week, today we will talk about an important topic: brain healthfor which, according to experts, the key lies in avoiding a sedentary lifestyle and exercising regularly, but not excessively.
To have a healthy brain, you need to exercise. Neurologists recommend exercising for 30 minutes five days a week to enhance its effects, improve memory and learning, and reduce the risk of cognitive decline. These intellectual benefits are also passed on to children and grandchildren, according to the latest research.
He A sedentary lifestyle is the fourth risk factor for global mortalityAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), high blood pressure, tobacco use and high blood sugar levels are to blame. And it is also one of the most important risk factors for neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.
Brain Week, celebrated this year from September 30 to October 4 by the Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN), will discuss, among other things, how Physical activity is an ally against depression, anxiety and stressand to improve brain health, as outlined by the International Health Agency.
Many studies reflect the benefits of exercise for physical and mental health. However, almost half of the Spanish population has sedentary habits, that is, they spend a large part of the day sitting and with little physical activity, a bad habit that is more common among women.
And if you don’t meet the WHO-recommended threshold of 150 minutes of physical activity per week (half an hour, 5 days a week), it means you’re in a delicate situation of ‘physical inactivity’ which can bring together many pathologies, especially cerebrovascular, as another work published in The Lancet a few years ago highlighted.
A sedentary lifestyle feels bad to us, but why?
Herman Pontzer, professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Global Health at Duke University, says so we are designed to exercise as a legacy from our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
“Chasing and hunting animals requires significant physical activity and a group strategy, which in turn favored a more developed brain in our species that requires more energy,” says José Luis Trejo, head of the Lifestyle and Cognition Group of the Cajal CSIC Institute. To find food, The men covered about 14 kilometers a day and the women, also very physically active, about 12 kilometers..
“Us body has evolved since those ancestors to exercise“, emphasizes Trejo, who co-authored with Coral Sanfeliu the book Brain and Exercise (Ed. Catarata-CSIC) from the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute.
A situation that contrasts with what is happening today. “Sitting at a desk or in front of the television for long periods of time is OK linked to lower life expectancy” explains Pontzer in a detailed popular article published in the journal Scientific American.
As Trejo notes: “A sedentary lifestyle is the main enemy of a healthy brain”. We must not forget that the brain is irrigated by blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrition, so maintaining and protecting cardiovascular health is essential for your health.
So a recent study in Circulation, one of the most prestigious publications in cardiology, supports how short bursts of about 12 minutes of cardiopulmonary exercise causing intense changes in 80% of circulating metabolites, linked to a wide range of beneficial health outcomes.
Sharpening the learning ability
The vice-president of the SEN, David Ezpeleta Echávarri, explains to SINC that the Physical activity is beneficial for both cerebral vascularization and for promoting the number of synapses. Exercise is also associated with healthier brain aging, which may delay the onset of clinical manifestations of neurodegenerative diseases.
Furthermore: “being Regular practice improves learning and memoryand has a well-demonstrated antidepressant and anxiolytic effect in humans,” adds Trejo. A good vaccine against two of the ‘evils’ of our time.
Espeleta indicates that exercise offers additional benefits in the brains of children and adolescents: it increases neural growth factors [necesarios para la supervivencia de las neuronas]like the brain-derived neurotrophic factorwhich promote the formation of synapses and other processes related to brain plasticity [capacidad para modular su actividad en función del entorno en que vivimos].
These benefits are also observed throughout life, but are especially relevant in childhood high prevalence of a sedentary lifestyle in childrenmainly through the use of screens. So this expert remembers that it is important to instill healthy movement patterns in little ones to care for a brain that is still developing.
Neuroprotectors for our brains
In 2013, researchers from Harvard University (USA) discovered that a protein called irisin increased in the brain with resistance exercise. This protein turned out to be the missing link in the chain that goes from exercise to brain health.
The experts found in rodents that this is possible by increasing the levels of irisin in the blood through physical exercise cross the blood-brain barrier that protects the brainand thus the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor increased and genes involved in cognition were activated. The irisin produced has the ability to control this important neuroprotective pathway in the brain.
This protein, which is already considered a hormone, has attracted a lot of interest. A new article suggests so Irisin could prevent memory loss caused by Alzheimer’s diseasewhich enhances the neuroprotective potential attributed to exercise.
As if all these benefits weren’t enough, persistently active people have one too 55% more likely to have more regular sleepwithout interruptions and with fewer problems getting started, according to a ten-year study of adults aged 39 to 67, recently published in the British Medical Journal. And a good night’s sleep is crucial for the production and secretion of hormones that regulate a large number of body processes.
Exercise in moderation
It’s never too late to start exercising or reaping its many benefits.. This was reported in a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine of 3,454 healthy men and women with an average age of 63 who, after four years of sustained regular physical activity, multiplied the odds of healthy aging by 7.
But like everything, the right amount of exercise must also be given. José Luis Trejo warns about this If the intensity or amount of exercise is increased too much, the benefits are reduced.they can even be canceled in such a way that no more differences occur with regard to a sedentary person.
A study published in PNAS in 2013 showed that the brain has a braking mechanism when we are ‘excessively’ active. Next to the fatigue associated with prolonged exertionThere is another factor that originates in the central nervous system and causes extreme fatigue and prevents us from continuing. It’s called central fatigue and is caused by serotonin.
A health that passes down generations
Exercising not only benefits the person doing it, but also their offspring.. Trejo has shown in rodents that the offspring of those who remain physically active reach their grandchildren. Even if they are sedentary, something that is obviously not recommended.
And that translates into one better learning and memory capacityas he explained in his latest work published in June in the Journal of Neuroscience. These cognitive benefits, Trejo tells SINC, are transmitted through sexual cells via microRNAs that regulate gene expression and are involved in epigenetic inheritance.
“Although the study was conducted in mice, the The epigenetic mechanisms involved are highly conserved between species and in humans they are essentially the same,” he points out.
The best recipe: exercise
More and more experts They consider exercise as an essential pillar in health management. Some even prescribe it. In fact, at the Fundación Jiménez Díaz University Hospital in Madrid, they believe that properly performed exercises are probably as effective, or even more so, than some treatments. That’s why they prescribe it to their patients to help improve their well-being and quality of life.
Experts recommend always using the build up activity gradually and maintain an appropriate intensity depending on the physical condition of each personas well as combining aerobics with strength exercises to build muscle. Of course, everything with the appropriate intensity and always in moderation.
Unfortunately, a sedentary lifestyle is becoming more and more common in our daily lives, so the decision to exercise should be made consciously by all types of people of any gender and age who want to have a relaxing lifestyle. healthy life. If there’s one thing experts are very clear about, it’s that giving up a sedentary lifestyle is excellent for our brains.