Physical Exercise and Brain Health

9 Comments

1. ozee on June 28, 2008 at 10:28

   Hel­lo.

   By doing a lit­tle read­ing on your great web­site I under­stand there is a great empha­sis on how to keep the brain sharp and I am must admit many great tips. How­ev­er in my opin­ion phys­i­cal exer­cise appears to give more val­ue to bet­ter brain health in gen­er­al than doing men­tal exer­cis­es. This is because when doing men­tal exer­cise it is vir­tu­al­ly min­i­mal to see a pos­i­tive trans­fer affect oth­er than the task you train­ing in.

   With phys­i­cal exer­cise there is gen­er­al trans­fer effect and until proved oth­er­wise there should be more empha­sis on phys­i­cal exer­cise than men­tal stimulation.

   
   
   
2. Alvaro on June 30, 2008 at 2:09

   Hel­lo Ozee,

   Thanks for the com­ment. Giv­en the exist­ing evi­dence, we have decid­ed in favor of a mul­ti-pronged approach, that high­lights the ben­e­fits of phys­i­cal exer­cise, men­tal stim­u­la­tion, stress man­age­ment and good nutrition.

   This approach is con­sis­tent with excel­lent recent pub­lic health efforts led by the Alzheimer’s Asso­ci­a­tion and the Dana Foun­da­tion For Brain Ini­tia­tives, both of which are ground­ed on four close-to-iden­ti­cal pil­lars or factors.

   Why a mul­ti-pronged approach vs. a “one size fits all”?

   Because dif­fer­ent bod­ies of research sug­gest the ben­e­fits of dif­fer­ent approach­es, and there is few research con­trast­ing their inter­ac­tions direct­ly (as Dr. Mich­e­lon points above).

   For exam­ple, advo­cat­ing that “there should be more empha­sis on phys­i­cal exer­cise than men­tal stim­u­la­tion” would ignore a large body of Cog­ni­tive Reserve research on the ben­e­fits of life­long edu­ca­tion and men­tal stim­u­la­tion to reduce the prob­a­bil­i­ty of devel­op­ing Alzheimer’s symp­toms, very sol­id large-scale clin­i­cal tri­als such as ACTIVE, and many con­trolled tri­als that show the ben­e­fits of well-direct­ed men­tal exer­cise like med­i­ta­tion, cog­ni­tive ther­a­py, com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing, for spe­cif­ic pop­u­la­tions and goals.

   Anoth­er exam­ple on why a “one size fits all” is not the best approach: the ben­e­fits of phys­i­cal exer­cise are most­ly based on mov­ing peo­ple from Seden­tary to Slight­ly Active. Now, there are many peo­ple who are not Seden­tary, who may ben­e­fit from oth­er approaches.

   So, I would turn the tables, and say that, right now, most brain health pub­lic edu­ca­tion efforts are based on a mul­ti-pronged approach and if any­one wants to focus exclu­sive­ly on one fac­tor for every­one and every­thing will have to prove a more sol­id case than the one avail­abe on exist­ing data today.

   
   
   
3. Glnn on June 30, 2008 at 3:04

   Men­tal exer­cis­es that would have a pos­i­tive trans­fer effect to oth­er men­tal tasks
   are exer­cis­es in atten­tion and concentration.
   Med­i­ta­tion is the sim­plest exam­ple of this.

   
   
   
4. Scott Hagwood on July 5, 2008 at 10:25

   Does phys­i­cal exer­cise, in humans, con­tribute to neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis? If so, would cog­ni­tive exer­cise then nur­ture the new cells cre­at­ing brain volume?

   
   
   
5. Alvaro on July 7, 2008 at 10:23

   Scott, very well put, that seems to be the case.

   Now, it is per­haps not “vol­ume” that grows (our skulls lim­it over­all vol­ume) but den­si­ty and weight, over­all and in spe­cif­ic brain struc­tures. Pret­ty amaz­ing, isn’t it?

   
   
   
6. Encefalus on August 8, 2008 at 2:56

   Very well writ­ten! I’ll keep these in mind.

   
   
   
7. Shane on October 23, 2008 at 10:36

   Per­fect expla­na­tion and good to read and get­ting good tips like this will help me in my rou­tine of exercises..It will be more effec­tive with the help of Aer­o­bic dance too..

   
   
   
8. Glenn on December 5, 2008 at 3:37

   As a Phys­i­cal Edu­ca­tor, it’s great to have this infor­ma­tion avail­able. Do you have any research sim­i­lar to Col­combe and Kramer that sup­ports sim­i­lar find­ings in chil­dren and youth?

   Please keep up the great work.

   
   
   
9. Joe Herzog on October 14, 2009 at 8:14

   The research gath­ered by Dr. Ratey (Spark, A User’s Guide to The Brain, Dr. John Med­i­na (Brain Rules) and Dr. Car­la Han­naford (Smart Moves) among oth­ers gives phys­i­cal edu­ca­tors a wealth of evi­dence to present to school admin­is­tra­tions about the val­ue of qual­i­ty phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion. It should also moti­vate the entire phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion com­mu­ni­ty to take a hard look at cur­rent cur­ricu­lum and the need to make changes that brings it more in line with stu­dents long term needs, social, emo­tion­al, phys­i­cal and cognitive.