From: drarwingnuttephd@gmail.com   
      
   Why Daily Movement Improves Your Brain Health (Part 3): The Remaining Reasons   
   For your patients:    
      
   By Sheri Colberg, PhD   
      
      
   As my final column on brain health, here are the final reasons why your brain   
   needs for you to be active regularly. Beyond the brain-released hormone,   
   leptin arising from fat cells impacts brain health, as do gut bacteria.   
      
      
   Leptin Is Affected by Physical Activity, Too   
      
   A lot of research has focused on leptin and its relationship to fat cells in   
   overweight and obesity, and the general conclusion has been that having higher   
   leptin concentrations likely leads to the development of insulin resistance. A   
   recent study    
   conducted on European adolescents shed more light on how physical activity may   
   offset some of the deleterious impact of having too much leptin released by   
   your fat cells. Researchers examined the association of physical activity and   
   fitness with leptin    
   concentrations in youth after taking into account their total body fat,   
   insulin resistance, and more. They found that the kids who engage in more   
   vigorous physical activity and who are more physically fit have lower levels   
   of leptin, regardless of how    
   much body fat they have, leading them to conclude that schools should   
   implement programs to increase high intensity physical activity and fitness.   
   Similar conclusions have been reached in studies on adults! In short, leptin   
   levels are less likely to be    
   elevated--even when you have a bigger waistline--if you are physically fit,   
   and having lower leptin levels is likely related to having your insulin work   
   better in both your body and your brain.   
      
   Being Active Alters Your Brain to Help You Lose Weight   
      
   While physical activity is good for so many reasons, you may not know that it   
   actually alters your brain and what you are likely to eat as well. Engaging in   
   just five weeks of moderate intensity training resulted in significantly   
   increases levels of    
   plasma BDNF (brain-derived neurotropic factor), a chemical compound that   
   causes you to eat less when its levels rise in the brain. Despite claims to   
   the contrary by some, exercise is likely to cause you to eat less, not more.   
   Doing regular physical    
   activity also increases the number of mitochondria in the brain, which are the   
   powerhouses of the cell--the result being that your brain's activity is revved   
   up, and you may actually be getting smarter and not just thinner by being more   
   regularly active.    
   What's not to like about that?   
      
   Why Exercise Is Good for Gut Bacteria   
      
   A limited body of research suggests that regular physical activity also   
   improves the balance of the helpful bacteria in your gut. By way of example,   
   one small study investigating adults taking a tai chi class in China found   
   that two months of regular    
   participation changed the microflora balance for the better in these   
   individuals. There is also some evidence that the intestinal flora a person   
   has may affect his or her levels of physical activity as well, with more   
   harmful bacteria sending signals to    
   the brain via the circulation that lead to greater inactivity.   
      
   Certainly, exercise increases gastrointestinal motility--meaning that it helps   
   food and waste products move through your digestive system more rapidly, with   
   waste products being excreted in normal bowel movements--which lowers your   
   risk of getting colon    
   or rectal cancers. A large portion of fecal matter is actually made up of   
   bacteria, too, and the more regularly those are excreted, the faster they can   
   be replaced (via your diet) with alternate ones. The bacteria in your gut can   
   release cytokines, which    
   are small protein molecules that modulate your body's immune system. When the   
   "bad" bacteria take over in your gut, more inflammatory cytokines are released   
   and can lead to insulin resistance, plaque formation in arteries, and   
   compromised immune function.   
      
   Choose the Best Physical Activities   
      
   When it comes to the brain, vigorous cardiovascular exercise undertaken at   
   least three times a week is likely the best medicine. Even engaging in more   
   moderate activities like walking, running, swimming, rowing, cycling, or   
   working out on any machine    
   that raises heart rate is beneficial, although you will likely need to engage   
   in moderate activities more often and for longer (i.e., five times a week and   
   for at least 150 minutes weekly) to gain similar benefits. However, even   
   everyday chores like    
   gardening, sweeping, raking, or cleaning can help to meet your brain's   
   exercise requirements.   
      
   Another critical physical activity is resistance training, which stimulates   
   your body to retain and gain muscle mass as you age instead of losing it   
   steadily over time or even faster due to being sedentary. It has direct   
   effects on your brain as well,    
   maybe even more so than aerobic exercise. For example, in a group of older   
   women with mild memory loss, engaging in six months of twice-weekly resistance   
   training improved their attention, conflict resolution, memory, and brain   
   plasticity more than    
   others doing twice-weekly balance and toning exercises. In contrast, women   
   undertaking a similar length of twice-weekly aerobic training mainly improved   
   their physical function, but not their brain health. Doing resistance work to   
   enhance your muscle    
   mass will also help prevent gains of visceral fat deep within your abdomen   
   that contributes to the development of systemic inflammation and negative   
   effects on your insulin action and your brain.   
      
   Don't discount the benefits of doing other types of physical activity as well.   
   For instance, yoga may be low intensity, but it leads to the release of   
   dopamine and serotonin. Tai chi and qi gong also lead to similar brain   
   effects. When you're trying to    
   change your behaviors and substitute in positive ways of releasing these brain   
   compounds in place of negative ones, you have to be open to creating a new,   
   healthy "addiction" to physical movement in all of its varying forms.   
      
      
   Related Articles   
   For Your Patients: Why Daily Movement Improves Your Brain Health (Part 2):   
   Brain Hormone Changes   
   The Challenge of Making Lifestyle Changes and Making Them Last   
   Using -- and Overcoming -- Technology to Exercise Effectively with Diabetes   
      
      
   http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/component/content/article/64-fe   
   ture-writer-article/17169-why-daily-movement-improves-your-brain   
   health-part-3-the-remaining-reasons   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)