Our expert is Rebekah Davison, a PhD researcher at Ulster University. Rebekah is studying how exercise is good for our brain health. In particular her research is around the role of exercise for people who have had a stroke, but this blog is more general and there are some great messages!! So let’s get our brains in gear and hear what Rebekah has to say…(you can follow Rebekah on Twitter by clicking here)
Key question: How does exercise affect my brain?
Has your brain ever let you down? How many times have you forgotten where you put your car keys, or even worse, forgetting someone’s name seconds after they told you…?
Everybody forgets things now and again… no matter how clever you are. It has been reported that even Einstein couldn’t remember his own phone number!! There are many reasons why our brains let us down occasionally such as (but not limited too) high levels of stress, alcohol intake, or brain injuries and neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's.
You probably know that as you get older your memory gets a bit worse, along with other cognitive functions such as your reasoning and the speed at which you can process new information (click here). What you might not know is that our brains also get smaller as we age. The average brain shrinks by ~ 5 % per decade after the age of 40 (click here for a review on ageing and the brain). Unfortunately, the number of people living with dementia is expected to double in the next 20 years, partly because people are living for longer.
Why exercise?
Exercise affects the brain in many different ways, it increases our heart rate which pumps much needed oxygen to the brain, it releases hormones that we need to promote the growth of new brain cells, and it increases plasticity (this relates to how our brains adapt to change). Neuroscientists (brain scientists) have known for a while that when we take part in aerobic exercise that increases our heart rate, a molecule called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is released. This is important for learning and memory, it helps maintain the life of our brain cells and grow new ones. Recent research also suggests that exercise is linked to a growth in gray matter volume in our brains (click here for the research). Therefore...exercise might even help our brains to grow!
We also know that if we are physically active in young adulthood, this will have cognitive benefits in middle age (click here for the research). However, if you weren't physically active in the past, don't worry, physical activity in midlife can protect you from cognitive decline as you age. Regular exercise can reduce our risk of developing dementia by 30 % (click here). A study published just last year also suggested that people who regularly exercised have healthier brains compared to people who didn't exercise (click here).
What don’t we know yet?
We know that exercise is beneficial for cognitive function, but we don’t know how much exercise is best and what intensity of exercise promotes the greatest cognitive improvement. Put simply, we’ve got the cake sorted (exercise is good generally), but we are working out the icing on top! For example a very recent review (published in April this year) highlighted that high-intensity exercise may have benefits for brain health, but more research is needed.
Take home message: physical activity is a method for enhancing brain function. We should all be aiming to exercise as part of our daily lives, so keep active and give your brain a boost!
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