The Best Exercises for Brain Health, According to a Neuroscientist

 Your doctor is responsible for getting you recovered enough to do these exercises.

The Best Exercises for Brain Health, According to a Neuroscientist

Julie Floyd Jones

Mon, January 31, 2022, 5:51 PM·7 min read

Getty Images / jacoblund

An estimated 40% of people ages 65 and older experience some degree of age-related cognitive decline. In the U.S. alone, that equates to approximately 21 million people. Whether you are over 65 and concerned about age-related memory loss or are simply looking to implement measures to improve cognition, research overwhelmingly shows that exercise is one of the most important daily habits to include to prevent cognitive decline.

Here neuroscientist Ebony Glover, Ph.D., weighs in on why daily exercise may be the most important thing we can do to reduce age-related cognitive decline and improve brain function. We also take a deeper look into how exercise impacts the brain, which types of exercise to include and how much exercise we should be getting for the greatest brain-health boost.

How Exercise Improves Brain Health

We often think of exercise as something that we should do purely for our physical health and to improve our heart, muscles or bones. However, as scientists continue to learn more about the ways that exercise benefits the body, they've also uncovered overwhelming evidence that it is essential to maintain the health of the brain.

Glover explains that physical exercise can lead to improvements in cognition not only by protecting the brain, but also through a process called neurogenesis, where new neurons are formed in the brain. "Physical activity appears to lead to neurogenesis, neuroprotection and cognitive improvements, primarily through the production of chemicals called neurotrophins."

Neurotrophins are proteins that act as growth factors within our central and peripheral nervous systems to regulate cell maintenance and function. In addition to the role neurotrophins play in brain cell maintenance, Glover shares that they are also important in promoting new cell growth in the brain: "Neurotrophins are critical for the development and maintenance of new brain cells. Exercise can generate and protect new neurons, and increase the volume of brain structures, leading to overall improved cognition and health in general."

For those looking for ways to prevent or reverse age-related cognitive decline, these findings are especially exciting. Glover explains that the volume of the brain naturally decreases with age, due to the reduction in the size of individual brain cells and a decrease in the number of connections between them. These reductions lead to subtle declines in cognitive function over time.

Exercise combats this process by boosting the production of neurotrophins to help fortify brain cell structure and signaling capacity. Glover says, "The rate of age-related cognitive decline and its severity depends on a range of factors, including a person's lifestyle choices. Maintaining an active lifestyle and engaging in certain activities during one's life may help prevent age-associated cognitive decline."

The Best Exercises for Brain Health

Variety seems to be key when building an exercise regimen to reduce cognitive decline. Glover says, "The majority of studies have shown positive effects of both aerobic exercise and resistance training, either separately or combined, on cognitive performance."

In a 2017 review, researchers looked at a number of studies on exercise and cognition in order to try to determine which methods create the greatest benefit. They found that both aerobic exercise and resistance training are important. Aerobic exercise was shown to improve cognitive ability, while resistance training was most effective on enhancing executive function, memory and working memory. All this to say, getting a good mix of different activity is the way to go.

Glover suggests that individualization is key in order to accommodate individuals at different stages along their wellness journey. "Any type of physical activity that promotes balance, coordination, agility and flexibility would be beneficial, especially when done consistently over time," she says.

Glover says that the most important thing is to maintain a steady exercise routine that includes both aerobic and resistance activities: "The science shows that if this is done over the course of at least six months to a year, there should be noticeable improvements in brain health and overall cognitive functioning in all adults, but especially in older adults."

How Much Exercise Do You Need to Improve Brain Health?

To achieve the cognitive benefits of exercise, it may be helpful to think of your workouts like you might think about your diet: get a good mix of the right ingredients each day to be able to sustain long-term health benefits. The same is true for exercise.

Glover recommends that we think of exercise in portions. "A long-term exercise regimen will work best when portioned out in the right amount on a weekly basis."

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week, but you may not need that much to reap some benefits. Glover says, "Doing intermittent aerobic exercise at any intensity for 6 to 10 minutes a day could also make a big difference over time. The ACSM also recommends that older adults do some form of resistance exercise at least twice a week. The goal is to target major muscle groups in the upper and lower body, starting with lower resistance levels and adjusting to higher levels over time to promote strengthening and endurance."

When considering resistance training, many people think only of weights or dumbbells. While there is value in lifting weight to build muscle, resistance can mean any type of resistance (think: body-weight exercises such as pushups, pullups, squats, planks or using resistance bands). It is also important to remember that intensity is individualized to each person. What is considered vigorous intensity for one person may be moderate or mild intensity for another and vice versa.

One way to determine exercise intensity that is individualized for you, is to use a tool called the Rate of Perceived Exertion. To determine your RPE, simply rate on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, how intense the exercise or activity feels to you.

For example, an activity like sitting on the sofa and watching TV might get an RPE of 1. Sprinting as fast as you possibly can might get an RPE of 10. Most exercise activities will fall somewhere in between these two extremes. Being mindful of where your RPE is during exercise will help you adjust your intensity to the appropriate level.

The phrase, "brisk is better for the brain," is an easy way to remember the basic intensity you need to feel to improve brain health. Use your RPE to adjust your intensity toward the range of moderate to vigorous or "brisk" to achieve the best results.

An Exercise Plan for Brain Health

There are many ways to ensure that you are getting a good mix of aerobic exercise and resistance training to meet the minimum 150-minute per week recommendation from the ACSM. This is a sample weekly schedule:

• 2 days per week of moderate- to vigorous-intensity cardiovascular exercise (think: 20-30 minutes of walking, jogging, biking, rowing, elliptical, swimming, etc.)

• 2 days per week of resistance training (think: 20-30 minutes of lifting weights, body-weight exercises or an at-home workout)

• 2 days per week of moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise (20-30 minutes)

• 1 day per week of rest, including deep breathing exercises

To accommodate your individual needs, simply adjust the schedule as needed; modifying the days of the week to plan for your favorite class or to give yourself rest when you need it.

Why Consistency Is Key

While research shows that as little as 10 minutes of exercise can have a positive impact on brain function, long-term cognitive improvements are seen when consistent exercise is continued over time.

Glover shares that the key is to be consistent with any program you implement. "At least 6 to 12 months of exercise is necessary to detect changes in cognitive functioning. While changes in the brain have been observed after shorter durations of exercise, these changes don't necessarily translate to improved cognitive functioning right away. It takes consistency over time."

It's always a good idea to consult your medical professional before beginning any new exercise plan, especially if you're currently managing a chronic health condition. So make a plan to have that discussion, then start building up your activity levels over time.

 

Dartmouth researchers discover rare natural products that promote regeneration of injured nerve cells

We should be able to apply this to stroke rehab, we need such regeneration. But never mind, nothing will be done about this. Do you really think our researchers and stroke leaders are reading the Journal of the American Chemical Society?
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20160122/Dartmouth-researchers-discover-rare-natural-products-that-promote-regeneration-of-injured-nerve-cells.aspx

Nerve damage from neurodegenerative disease and spinal cord injury has largely been considered irreversible, but Dartmouth researchers report progress in the effort to synthesize rare natural products that promote regeneration and growth of injured nerve cells.
The findings appear in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. A PDF is available on request.
Neurotrophins, or proteins that promote the development of neurons, have been investigated as potential therapeutic agents, but they have a variety of drawbacks. A group of small molecule natural products, however, possesses potent neurotrophic properties without some of the shortcomings of protein-based agents. Unfortunately, a source of suitable quantities of these substances to enable thorough medicinal exploration has yet to be identified. As such, the development of synthetic processes to generate molecules in this class (and related unnatural analogs) is critically important to establish science capable of fueling the discovery of therapeutic agents within the class. That said, many member of this natural product class boast very complex carbocyclic structures that have stood as substantial challenges to modern synthetic chemistry.

Now, Dartmouth researchers have discovered that one of their recently discovered chemical reactions is capable of delivering some of the most potent and rare members of this natural product class. Their pursuits resulted in the laboratory preparation of three neurotrophic natural products in the class and demonstrated the first application of their new carbocycle-forming reaction in natural product synthesis. In addition to these accomplishments, the researchers' study also led to the discovery of a new radical cascade reaction process that proved instrumental for completing their laboratory syntheses of these complex agents.
"Advances of this nature are critically important for defining a foundation of science necessary for advancing rare natural products as therapeutic agents," says co-author and principal investigator Glenn Micalizio, the New Hampshire Professor of Chemistry at Dartmouth College. "Simply stated, without a synthetic means to access such agents, development of therapeutics based on their structure would not be possible. While other syntheses of natural products within this class have recently been reported by others, our current achievement defines a unique synthesis pathway that could be employed to prepare synthetic analogs not easily accessed by others. Also, this marks the first successful application of our chemical method for hydrindane synthesis in the context of natural product synthesis."

Source:

Dartmouth College

TSRI Chemists Find Efficient, Scalable Way to Synthesize Potential Brain-Protecting Compound - jiadifenolide

Interesting that I have never heard of this. Has your doctor? Looks like lots of research needed on this. I would expect the ASA, NSA and WSO to start up clinical trials in a year. Hell no, they won't do a damn thing about this news.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=153700&CultureCode=en
Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have invented the first practical, scalable method for synthesizing jiadifenolide, a plant-derived molecule that may have powerful brain-protecting properties.
Finding a good way to synthesize jiadifenolide has been a goal of chemists around the world since the compound was discovered in 2009. Preliminary studies have hinted that it might be useful in protecting brain cells from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and perhaps other neurological conditions including stroke and traumatic brain injury. But it is very difficult to obtain useful quantities of jiadifenolide from plants, and the synthesis methods reported in the past few years also have low yields.
“Prior synthetic routes to jiadifenolide yield a few milligrams, suitable mainly for cell-culture experiments, but with our new method someone could make the gram to kilogram quantities needed for tests in animals and humans,” said Ryan A. Shenvi, associate professor at TSRI.
The feat by Shenvi and his team, described in an Advance Online Publication in Nature Chemistry on June 15, 2015, may therefore lead to the development, years from now, of a jiadifenolide-derived drug.
The achievement also demonstrates the increasing power of synthetic chemistry to produce the potentially valuable molecules found in nature on large scale at low cost.
“There are more and more examples these days of syntheses that start with cheap, readily available chemicals and assemble them into complex and valuable molecules on a meaningful scale—much more efficiently than if you tried to isolate the molecules from nature or produce them in genetically engineered organisms,” said Shenvi.
A Tantalizing Target
Jiadifenolide is found in trace quantities in the fruit of the star anise-related shrub Illicium jiadifengpi, which grows in southern China. It and other Illicium plants have long featured in Chinese traditional medicine. Most parts of I. jiadifengpi are poisonous if eaten, but root extracts applied to the skin have been used to treat arthritis.
In 2009, a team of Japanese and Chinese scientists reported isolating tiny quantities of jiadifenolide from I. jiadifengpi. They determined that the compound, unlike many others from the plant, is not toxic, and indeed strongly promotes the growth of axons and dendrites (output and input branches) from rat neurons in a culture dish. Subsequent research has suggested that jiadifenolide works by enhancing the activity of natural brain growth factors, known as neurotrophins.
“Neurotrophin levels are depressed in diseases like Alzheimer’s, so researchers have long sought compounds that behave like neurotrophins or that amplify their activity, especially those that could be taken in a pill,” said Shenvi.
Neurotrophins themselves are large molecules that effectively can’t be used as drugs, because they are rapidly broken down by enzymes in the digestive tract and bloodstream and also don’t cross the blood-brain barrier easily. Jiadifenolide by contrast is a small molecule, and thus has more potential to be developed into an oral drug.
‘A Completely Different Approach’       
Shenvi’s laboratory took up the jiadifenolide synthesis challenge a few years after the first, low-yield method was reported in 2011. “While we worked on this, two other groups reported their own synthetic routes, which pushed us to find a completely different approach,” said Hai-Hua Lu, a research associate in the Shenvi laboratory who was lead author of the new study.
The new, eight-step synthesis involves merging two simple molecules, called butenolides, via a process called the Michael reaction—in fact, a double Michael reaction—to make a compound very close to jiadifenolide itself.
“It’s a chemical reaction that few people (myself included) would have confidently predicted to work,” Shenvi said.
“After we figured out how to do that, though, the rest was much easier, and we found we could obtain more than a gram from one batch,” said Lu.
Now that jiadifenolide can be produced in sufficient quantities, Shenvi is looking for companies that can help with further studies of the compound, including tests in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases.
Shenvi also suspects that the new method can be adapted for the practical synthesis of related trace compounds found in Illicium plants.
He admits, though, that it is not just the therapeutic potential of this plant metabolite that has attracted him and other synthetic chemists.
“The peculiar geometry of jiadofenolide lends it a certain beauty, like a geodesic dome or a mosaic tessellation. It’s the combination of structural beauty, chemical challenge and therapeutic potential that has stimulated so much interest,” he said.
The other author of the paper, “An eight-step gram-scale synthesis of (−)-jiadifenolide,” was National Science Foundation (NSF) pre-doctoral fellow Michael D. Martinez, a second-year graduate student in the Shenvi laboratory. “Many related Illicium sesquiterpenes also demonstrate neurotrophic properties and share a common structural core with (-)-jiadifenolide. Our route to access (-)-jiadifenolide may provide inroads to these related natural products and analogues.”
The research was funded in part by the NSF (DGE-1346837), as well as Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, the Baxter Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Novartis and the Sloan Foundation.

Is integration and survival of newborn neurons the bottleneck for effective neural repair by endogenous neural precursor cells?

They ask a great question.  
Who is being given the task to answer it? Shit, no one will, it will just drop by the wayside like all the other promising stroke questions.
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnins.2014.00029/full?
Ann M. Turnley*, Harleen S. Basrai and Kimberly J. Christie

    Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

After two decades of research the existence of adult neural precursor cells and the phenomenon of adult neurogenesis is well established. However, there has been little or no effective harnessing of these endogenous cells to promote functional neuronal replacement following neural injury or disease. Neural precursor cells can respond to neural damage by proliferating, migrating to the site of injury, and differentiating into neuronal or glial lineages. However, after a month or so, very few or no newborn neurons can be detected, suggesting that even though neuroblasts are generated, they generally fail to survive as mature neurons and contribute to the local circuitry. Is this lack of survival and integration one of the major bottlenecks that inhibits effective neuronal replacement and subsequent repair of the nervous system following injury or disease? In this perspective article the possibility that this bottleneck can be targeted to enhance the integration and subsequent survival of newborn neurons will be explored and will suggest some possible mechanisms that may need to be modulated for this to occur.
 
Introduction

Two decades of research has demonstrated that a surprisingly wide variety of factors can influence adult neural precursor cell biology (Christie and Turnley, 2012). This includes extrinsic factors, such as growth factors, cytokines, chemokines, neurotrophins, steroids and extracellular matrix molecules as well as cell intrinsic factors such as transcription factors and signal transduction pathway regulators (Christie and Turnley, 2012; Christie et al., 2013a). In general, endogenous adult neural precursor cells can be quite easily induced to proliferate and migrate, and depending on the context, differentiate into neuronal or glial cell types. However, fewer factors have been identified that induce newborn neurons to integrate into the local circuitry and survive more than a few weeks after their birth. Indeed at least 50% of newborn neurons fail to survive longer than a month or two after their generation (Petreanu and Alvarez-Buylla, 2002; Dayer et al., 2003). This makes sense under normal physiological conditions, where newborn neurons replenish local neurons lost due to normal turnover, to homeostatically maintain neuron numbers (Valley et al., 2009). Addition of newborn neurons to existing circuitry has specific functional outcomes. In the olfactory bulb, addition of new neurons is required for short-term olfactory memory, perceptual learning, and for innate olfactory responses (Breton-Provencher et al., 2009; Moreno et al., 2009; Sakamoto et al., 2011). In the hippocampus, adult neurogenesis plays roles in anxiety and affective behaviors, cognition and spatial memory (Ming and Song, 2011), and is proposed to be vital for forgetting of hippocampal-dependent short-term memories (Frankland et al., 2013). However, in instances of larger neuronal loss, such as following injury or disease, this failure of newborn neurons to increase their integration and survival in conjunction with increases in proliferation and redirected migration means that the full potential of adult neural progenitor cells (NPCs) to repair the damage may not be realized. This perspective article will explore some of the mechanisms and factors that may be targeted to enhance newborn neuron survival, summarized in Table 1.

- See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnins.2014.00029/full?#sthash.kga2GaLs.dpuf