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Physical-Exercise

Time for a universal “exercise prescription” for kids and adults to boost cognition and mental health?

August 31, 2023 by SharpBrains 9 Comments

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of brain research find­ings, tools and con­tro­ver­sies plus some brain teasers to chal­lenge your (and our) work­ing memory.

#1. Major evi­dence review sup­ports an “exer­cise pre­scrip­tion” for most adults to boost men­tal health

“High­er inten­si­ty phys­i­cal activ­i­ty was asso­ci­at­ed with greater improve­ments” and “Effec­tive­ness of phys­i­cal activ­i­ty inter­ven­tions dimin­ished with longer dura­tion interventions.”
The sweet spot was four or five half-hour effort­ful ses­sions per week. Are you hit­ting it?

#2. (Sep­a­rate) Evi­dence review: Phys­i­cal exer­cise helps boost atten­tion, cog­ni­tive flex­i­bil­i­ty and inhibito­ry con­trol in chil­dren and ado­les­cents with ADHD

Not sur­pris­ing but impor­tant find­ings. Next to research: the type, inten­si­ty, and dura­tion that may help the most.

#3. Read­ing for plea­sure dur­ing child­hood may lead to high­er brain/ cog­ni­tive devel­op­ment and men­tal well-being dur­ing adolescence

Cru­cial­ly, “… read­ing for plea­sure in ear­ly child­hood was linked with bet­ter scores on com­pre­hen­sive cog­ni­tion assess­ments and bet­ter edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment in young ado­les­cence. It was also asso­ci­at­ed with few­er men­tal health prob­lems and less time spent on elec­tron­ic devices … can be ben­e­fi­cial regard­less of socioe­co­nom­ic sta­tus. It may also be help­ful regard­less of the children’s ini­tial intel­li­gence lev­el.” — Long Live Books and Read­ing (and, yes, Exercise)!

#4. Vir­tu­al cog­ni­tive behav­iour­al ther­a­py (CBT) accounts for over 30% of NHS men­tal health treat­ments — up from 10% in 2017

“Ear­ly inter­ven­tion is crit­i­cal in pre­vent­ing a patient’s mild to mod­er­ate symp­toms from wors­en­ing” … (but) online ther­a­py may not suit every­one and that it was still up to health­care pro­fes­sion­als to iden­ti­fy “who may and may not benefit”

#5. Just-pub­lished Apple patent sig­nals aim to mea­sure brain activ­i­ty using Air­Pods sen­sor system

Still ear­ly days, but rel­e­vant sig­nal to note and track

#6. Neu­rotech and brain data in con­text: Are “neu­ror­ights” the way to men­tal privacy?

Impor­tant point: “The poten­tial to col­lect brain data more direct­ly, with high­er res­o­lu­tion, and in greater amounts has height­ened wor­ries about men­tal and brain pri­va­cy …(but) We argue that by empha­siz­ing what is dis­tinct about brain pri­va­cy issues, rather than what they share with oth­er data pri­va­cy con­cerns, risks weak­en­ing broad­er efforts to enact more robust pri­va­cy law and policy.”

#7. Hopes and Ques­tions raised by Alzheimer’s drug Leqem­bi (lecanemab)

“Will Leqembi’s pri­ma­ry ben­e­fit — a slight slow­ing of decline in cog­ni­tion and func­tion­ing — make a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence to patients and fam­i­ly mem­bers or will it be dif­fi­cult to dis­cern? … How many old­er adults in their 70s and 80s will be able and will­ing to trav­el to med­ical cen­ters for infu­sions twice a month and have reg­u­lar MRI scans and physi­cian vis­its to mon­i­tor for poten­tial side effects such as brain bleeds or swelling? Even with Medicare cov­er­age, how many peo­ple will be able to afford the suite of med­ical ser­vices required?”

#8. Its mas­sive price tag: $109,000 per patient, per year

“To qual­i­fy for Leqem­bi, patients must under­go a PET scan that looks for amy­loid plaques, the pro­tein clumps that clog the brains of many Alzheimer’s patients. About 1 in 5 patients who took Leqem­bi in the major clin­i­cal test of the drug devel­oped brain hem­or­rhag­ing or swelling, a risk that requires those tak­ing the drug to under­go fre­quent med­ical check­ups and brain scans called MRIs … Out­stand­ing doubts about Leqem­bi and relat­ed drugs have giv­en urgency to efforts to mon­i­tor patient experiences.”
#9. Final­ly, let’s piv­ot into some­thing more fun. Here are a few brain teasers aimed at chal­leng­ing your work­ing mem­o­ry and help­ing get that brain and mind in great shape for the new academic/ life­long learn­ing year. Please give them a try … they are not as easy as they may sound:

 

Say the days of the week in alpha­bet­i­cal order, then back­wards. If too hard, try the 5 work days first.

If you speak a lan­guage oth­er than Eng­lish, do the same in said language.

Say the months of the year in alpha­bet­i­cal order. Too easy? Well, try doing so back­wards, in reverse alpha­bet­i­cal order. (You will prob­a­bly need some pen and paper for this one.)

Find the sum of your date of birth, mm/dd/yyyy. For a tougher brain teas­er, do the same with your best friend’s date of birth (with­out look­ing it up…)

Look around you and, with­in a minute, find three green things that may fit in your pock­ets, and three red objects that are clear­ly too big to fit.

(more brain teasers here, for teens and adults of every age)
Have a great month of September!

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Filed Under: Attention & ADD/ADHD, Brain Teasers, Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Peak Performance, SharpBrains Monthly eNewsletter, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: AirPods, Apple, attention, boost mental health, Brain Teasers, brain teasers for adults, brain-activity, brain-teaser, cognitive, cognitive behavioural therapy, cognitive-flexibility, exercise prescription, fun brain teasers, lecanemab, Leqembi, mental health treatments, Neuroethics, neurotech, neurotechnologies, Physical-Exercise, reading, virtual cognitive behavioural therapy, Working-memory

Studies find growing evidence linking weight, physical activity, neuroplasticity and depression

October 18, 2021 by SharpBrains

Being over­weight can cause depres­sion — and exer­cise is an anti­dote, dual stud­ies con­firm (Run­ner’s World):

A large-scale study from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Exeter has found ‘robust evi­dence’ that being over­weight hikes up your risk of devel­op­ing depres­sion – but as fresh evi­dence con­firms, log­ging your morn­ing miles is one of the most effec­tive ways to fight back. Exer­cise jolts your brain into action, and not just because of the endor­phin high … ‘Obe­si­ty and depres­sion are both major glob­al health chal­lenges, and our study pro­vides the most robust evi­dence to date that high­er BMI caus­es depres­sion,’ said lead author Jess O’Lough­lin. ‘Under­stand­ing whether phys­i­cal or social fac­tors are respon­si­ble for this rela­tion­ship can help inform effec­tive strate­gies to improve men­tal health and well­be­ing.’ [Read more…] about Stud­ies find grow­ing evi­dence link­ing weight, phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and depression

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: body mass index, Brain-Plasticity, depression, depressive disorders, generalized anxiety disorder, mental health, metabolic health, neuroplasticity, obesity, Physical-activity, Physical-Exercise, Transcranial-Magnetic-Stimulation

Five profound ways physical exercise shapes your brain and mind

January 6, 2020 by Greater Good Science Center

We’ve all heard that exer­cise is good for us—how it strength­ens our hearts and lungs, and helps us pre­vent dis­eases like dia­betes. That’s why so many of us like to make New Year’s res­o­lu­tions to move more, know­ing it will make us health­i­er and live longer.

But many peo­ple don’t know about the oth­er impor­tant ben­e­fits of exercise—how it can help us find hap­pi­ness, hope, con­nec­tion, and courage.

Around the world, peo­ple who are phys­i­cal­ly active are hap­pi­er and more sat­is­fied with their lives. They have a stronger sense of pur­pose and expe­ri­ence more grat­i­tude, love, and hope. They feel more con­nect­ed to their com­mu­ni­ties, and are less like­ly to suf­fer from lone­li­ness or become depressed.

These ben­e­fits are seen through­out the lifes­pan, includ­ing [Read more…] about Five pro­found ways phys­i­cal exer­cise shapes your brain and mind

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Peak Performance Tagged With: brain, exercise, Joy, mind, movement, neurobiological, neurochemistry, neurological, Physical-Exercise, proprioception, resilient, well-being

Study: Strenuous physical exercise may lead to cognitive –not just physical– fatigue

October 1, 2019 by SharpBrains

__________

Too Much Exer­cise Can Tire Our Brains Out, Too (Dis­cov­er Mag­a­zine D‑brief):

“For years, the Nation­al Insti­tute of Sports, Exer­cise and Per­for­mance (INSEP) in France had been study­ing an unusu­al phe­nom­e­non. If an athlete’s work­out reg­i­ments were ramped up, it didn’t always lead to a bet­ter per­for­mance — even if that ath­lete felt like they were work­ing hard­er than before.

The orga­ni­za­tion called this phe­nom­e­non over­reach­ing, and knew what the phys­i­cal symp­toms were. But the orga­ni­za­tion want­ed to know if any symp­toms of fatigue were appear­ing in the brain, too. New research says yes. [Read more…] about Study: Stren­u­ous phys­i­cal exer­cise may lead to cog­ni­tive –not just phys­i­cal– fatigue

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Peak Performance Tagged With: brain, burnout, cognitive fatigue, cognitive-control, exercise, neuro-computational, overtraining, performance, Physical-Exercise, sports, strenuous, strenuous workouts

Great news: The New York Times acknowledges that (as clearly documented for 10+ years) Exercise and Brain Training are BOTH crucial for Lifelong Brain Fitness

November 22, 2017 by SharpBrains

Exer­cise May Enhance the Effects of Brain Train­ing (The New York Times):

“..an inter­est­ing new study pub­lished in the Jour­nal of Cog­ni­tive Neu­ro­science sug­gests that com­bin­ing intense exer­cise and brain train­ing might, over time, ampli­fy the ben­e­fits of both for the brain, even in peo­ple whose minds already are work­ing well…scientists at McMas­ter Uni­ver­si­ty in Hamil­ton, Ontario, began to won­der recent­ly whether brain train­ing and exer­cise train­ing might be com­ple­men­tary, with exer­cise prompt­ing the cre­ation of baby neu­rons that brain train­ing would then strengthen…the study’s find­ings sug­gest that exer­cis­ing both our bod­ies and minds may pro­vide the great­est boost to our mem­o­ries…” [Read more…] about Great news: The New York Times acknowl­edges that (as clear­ly doc­u­ment­ed for 10+ years) Exer­cise and Brain Train­ing are BOTH cru­cial for Life­long Brain Fitness

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: Brain-Fitness, Brain-Training, Cognitive-Training, memory, Neurons, neurotrophic, new-york-times, Physical-Exercise

20 Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

June 20, 2016 by Alvaro Fernandez

holdingbrain——-

June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Aware­ness Month, so let me share these 20 Must-Know Facts to Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty & Improve Brain Health that come from the hun­dreds of sci­en­tif­ic and med­ical stud­ies we ana­lyzed  [Read more…] about 20 Must-Know Facts to Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and Improve Brain Health

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: Alzheimers, biofeedback, brain-awareness, Brain-Fitness, Brain-health, brain-supplements, Brain-Training, chronic-stress, cognitive-decline, meditation, mental-exercise, Neurogenesis, neuroplasticity, Physical-Exercise

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