A lot patients ask me, Dr. Wang, how can I improve my memory and brain function?
When we age, there is a general slowing of the nerve conduction and an overall decrease in the number of neurons able to do the job.
These changes are primarily due to the reduction of blood flow to the brain. Thinking, reasoning, remembering — these are all compromised over time precisely because of that slowed activity. Motor and sensory nerve conduction are compromised.
Do you know what helps us to get blood flowing to the brain? That’s right, it’s exercise! One reason to exercise is that it reduces stress and the release of stress hormones that affect the health of our brain cells.
But exercise also helps to save your brain from the risks of: cardiovascular conditions that can cause stroke (lack of oxygen to the brain) ; cognitive failure and neuro-degeneration. Physical activity also boosts: neuronal growth; it helps with the speed of information processing and reaction times; it enables a better firing of our feel-good neuro-chemicals and so exercise helps to keep us happy and maintain emotional resilience.
The term BDNF stands for “brain-derived neurotrophic factor.” It’s a protein that’s been called a master molecule and referred to as “Miracle-Gro for the brain” by Harvard psychiatrist, John Ratey, author of the book Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. According to Ratey, BDNF is “a crucial biological link between thought, emotions and movement.”
Basically BDNF improves the function of neurons, encourages new neurons to grow and protects them from stress and cell death. Sprinkled on neurons in a petri dish, BDNF was observed to cause brain cells to sprout the structural branches required for learning. So it’s sort of like fertilizer for the brain.
But how do you get your BDNF? Through exercise!
Physical exercise, and aerobic exercise inparticular, is very beneficial for maintaining brain health, even in people who are at risk for developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Daily aerobic exercise is best but including intervals of sprints are even better. In a fairly recent German study volunteers who did two 3 minute sprints (separated by 2 minutes of lower intensity) during the course of a forty-minute treadmill session demonstrated higher increases in BDNF than non-sprinters. Not only that, the sprinters learned vocabulary words 20 percent faster than non-sprinting exercisers. It seems even a small amount of high-intensity exertion can have a profound effect on your brain. Burst training is where it’s at.
What’s especially encouraging is you don’t necessarily have to go overboard or meet physical activity guidelines in order to benefit your brain. In one recent study, researchers concluded that even among people who did not go to gym or jog, each hour of light intensity physical activity and achieving 7500 steps or more daily was associated with higher total brain volume. This is equivalent to approximately 1.4 to 2.2 years less brain aging.
So let’s stay physically active. Aim for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity. Remember that any physical activity can benefit your brain. Get up to move and be smarter!