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- Can Exercise Stop Brain Aging?
Welcome to the first issue of Vitality on Tap!
A newsletter for the people who reject the status quo on aging.
People who want just enough science to know why they're doing what they're doing and simple effective practices to improve their lives. Today we're talking about brain health and aging. 4 min 15 sec read
What happens to your brain as you age?
Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash
As we age our brains change. They shrink, literally and they don't run as efficiently as they used to. The human brain shrinks by about 5% per decade after the age of 40 and the shrinkage accelerates after 70.
Blood circulation isn't as good, and the risk of stroke increases.
The scariest part though is how many people experience cognitive issues.
Losing your memories has to be one of the hardest things you can experience, not just for you but for your family as well.
I can't imagine forgetting who I am, not recognizing my wife, and having no memory of my children and their lives.
Terrifying...
Why am I telling you this?
Because I want you to know what's at stake.
If you and I don't take care of our brains today the future could be pretty bleak.
Memory
Photo by Bret Kavanaugh on Unsplash
Memory issues are the most common change associated with aging.
Memory is divided into two separate categories; episodic and semantic.
Episodic memories are things like events. You can visualize this system like the desktop of your computer. There are icons and folders that if you open them will reveal more information and details. This is the system that is impacted most heavily by aging. The "icons and folders get mixed up and lost."
Semantic memories have to do with the meanings of your memories and experiences along with things like word definitions. This system doesn't seem to be as susceptible to age-related memory loss.
Dementia/Alzheimer's
This is the big one, the one that everyone wants to avoid.
It's one thing for it to take a few extra minutes to find your car in the parking lot. It's another thing entirely to forget your own name and everyone you love.
The prevalence of these diseases increases exponentially with age, 20% of people by age 80 and 40% by age 90.
If you're like me and you have a family history of Alzheimer's that number goes up... a lot.
What can you do about it?
Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash
In a study of 1,462 women ages 38-60 that lasted 40 years those with high fitness levels delayed the onset of dementia by 9.5 years and those with medium fitness delayed it by 5 years.
Are 9.5 more years of cognitive clarity worth maintaining your fitness?
I think so.
As it turns out the same things that keep your heart healthy also keep your brain healthy. So if you're living a heart-healthy lifestyle you're already on the right track.
Regular exercise
Healthy diet
Low alcohol intake
Sleep at least 7 hours per night
In fact, there have been some efforts to reclassify Alzheimer's as a vascular disease, aka a disease caused by poor blood flow.
I know that doesn't sound very important but it is and I'm going to tell you why.
You have SOOOOOOOOO much control over your vascular health!
For a long time, we thought that Alzheimer's was an essentially untouchable disease, and if you were born with a predisposition to it, well that sucks for you.
Not anymore!
Vascular health IS brain health
What specific practices will help save your brain?
Cardiovascular exercise- The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity (running, jogging, cycling, etc.) per week or an equivalent combination.
This is the MINIMUM!
Unfortunately, only about 22% of American men ages 18 and above and 18% of women ages 18 and above met the guidelines for Americans between 2008 and 2016.
A good goal to shoot for is at least 30 minutes of moderate cardiovascular exercise EVERY SINGLE DAY.
There's no research available on resistance training, but in terms of practicality, it likely carries similar benefits and possibly different/extra ones, we just don't have the data on it yet.
What is cool is that they've been able to show that cardiovascular exercise causes new neurons, the cells that make up your brain, to grow in the hippocampus which is the part of your brain that creates memories and stores them before they're transferred to other areas.
That might not sound like much, but until not very long ago it was believed impossible to grow new neurons.
Sauna- One of the main reasons I spent more money than I should have to put a sauna in my home is because I have a family history of Alzheimer's and sauna is one of the best things you can do for brain health.
In a study that looked at 2315 Finnish men aged 42 to 60 years at baseline, men who had 4 to 7 sauna sessions/wk compared with those who had 1 sauna session/wk had a 66% and 65% reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer's, respectively.
20 minutes per session at a temperature that exceeds 174F or 79C is the goal.
This is something I try to do EVERY DAY.
Photo by HUUM on Unsplash
Sleep at least 7 hours per night- I know, I know sleep isn't always the easiest thing but getting enough of it makes everything better, and not getting enough of it can make it feel like your life is falling apart.
Apparently not getting enough really does make your brain fall apart.
According to a 25-year study with 7959 participants sleeping 6 hours vs 7 increases the likelihood of developing dementia. In fact "short sleep duration" increases your chances by 30%
Set yourself up for success, keep your room dark and cool, budget plenty of time for sleep, and stay off of screens an hour before bed.
Maintain cognitive strain- Use it or lose it seems to be the universal law when it comes to the body.
If you don't use your muscles they will get weak.
If you don't stress your brain by tackling difficult cognitive tasks it will degenerate more quickly.
Maintaining your brain is INCREDIBLY expensive for your body so if it's not being used it won't be maintained.
Find hard problems that you enjoy solving and spend time with them every day.
Decrease blood pressure- High blood pressure is very closely related to dementia and Alzheimer's, considering how important vascular health is to brain health this shouldn't come as a surprise.
If you have high blood pressure and are concerned about your long-term cognitive health getting it under control should be a top priority.
Summary
We don't know everything about brain health and aging but there are a few things that are abundantly clear.
We have more control than we thought
Daily exercise matters
Heat exposure can make a big difference
Lifestyle choices have just as big of an impact on your brain health, if not more, than your genetics
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone you think might benefit from it as well, and as always if you have any questions or suggestions please don't hesitate to reach out.
The Discomfort Lab is now Vitality on Tap
In case you're wondering how you got here, the Discomfort Lab is now Vitality on Tap.
Why the name change?
It better reflects the impact I want to have on my readers.
The definition of vitality is- Manifestation of a capacity for enduring and performing certain functions; in this case, it's the capacity to reject the status quo on aging.
My mission is to dive into the science of longevity and break it down into easy-to-digest chunks that you can take back and implement into your daily life the very same day.
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