Vigorous exercise and memory improvement
Six minutes of high-intensity exercise can extend the healthy lifespan of the brain, delaying the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. A new study published in the British Journal of Physiology shows that short but intense cycling exercises increase the production of a special protein that is crucial for brain formation, learning, and memory, protecting the brain from age-related cognitive decline. This finding helps develop accessible and affordable non-pharmacological methods to improve the health of the elderly.
A special protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) can enhance neural plasticity and neuron survival. Animal studies have shown that increasing the availability of BDNF can promote memory formation and storage, enhance learning ability, and generally improve cognitive function.
To understand the effects of fasting and exercise on BDNF production, researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand compared various factors to study their individual and combined effects, including 20-hour fasting, mild exercise (90 minutes of low-intensity cycling), high-intensity exercise (6 minutes of vigorous cycling), and a combination of fasting and exercise.
They found that short but intense exercise was the most effective way to increase BDNF, compared to a day of fasting, regardless of prolonged mild exercise. BDNF increased 4-5 times more than fasting (no change in BDNF concentration) or prolonged activity (slight increase in BDNF concentration).
The increase in BDNF observed during exercise may be due to an increase in the number of platelets that store large amounts of BDNF. Compared to fasting, exercise had a greater impact on the concentration of circulating platelets in the blood, increasing it by 20%.
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