Cardiovascular Exercise And The Brain

From the age of about 30, brain function, and particularly memory, starts to decline gradually. But with cardiovascular exercise, it appears this can be slowed.

Cardiovascular exercise (CVE) is literally that which affects the heart/lungs/blood circulation. There are so many things you can do to get your heart pumping, and it takes as little as 20 minutes a day to really improve your health.

Studies have shown CVE keeps brain function working, but it has a number of other benefits as well, including weight management, reducing depression and increasing the body’s natural immunity.

How much?

You certainly don’t have to run marathons or climb mountains to make a difference. Choose an exercise you enjoy and aim for some variation. Swim, walk, ride a bike, play golf, the list is endless. You are experiencing a cardiovascular training effect if you have difficulty maintaining a conversation while you do it. You should feel slightly breathless and have to breathe deeply or concentrate on your breathing. You do not need to be gasping for air, sweating profusely or in pain!

How does CVE help?

Scientists believe exercise appears to affect the dentate gyrus, one of a few parts of the brain where neurogenesis, or the creation of new brain cells, occurs. The number of new cells and the strength of the connections between them are regarded as important factors in improved brain performance. Cell production needs a supply of hormones and proteins, particularly a hormone called Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), which is released into the blood stream every time there is muscle activity. IGF-1 in turn triggers an increase of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which directly promotes the growth of new cells. For the first time, using an MRI scanner, scientists at Columbia University Medical Center in New York have been able to see neurogenesis at work in a ‘before and after’ exercise scenario.

Those most likely to benefit from current studies are those with degenerative brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, and the next step will be the design of an exercise program that is specifically directed towards preventing age-related memory loss.

At the University of Birmingham, a specialist in exercise metabolism, Dr Asker Jeukendrup, says you don’t need to do much exercise to get an effect, but the more you do the better. Twenty minutes of brisk walking will reduce degeneration of the brain. “If you can keep the elderly active, their quality of life improves so much.”

The simple principle is that the fittest bodies have the fittest minds.