The Research is In: Exercise Key to Brain Health

In the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, an older man on the porch castigates a young Jimmy Stewart, “Youth is wasted on the wrong people.” His complaint aims not only at Jimmy Stewart, whose physical vigor exceeds his life experience, but at himself, whose life experience exceeds his physical vigor. He feels his mind and body slowing down.

Some of us relate to the old man on the porch. Sure, we can’t stop getting older, but we can slow down our mind’s decline. A growing body of  research points to exercise as key to keeping our mind sharp as we age.

Perhaps the greatest fear of the Boomer generation is being afflicted with Alzheimer’s. In a study published in the journal BMC Public Health, researchers reviewed 150 research articles examining the impact of physical activity on Alzheimer’s. They concluded that physically active older people were significantly less likely to develop the disease compared to people who were inactive.

Of course, there’s more to brain health than avoiding Alzheimer’s. In a study published in the journal Cortex, researchers assessed the heart and lung fitness of older adults (aged 55 to 74) by testing their ability to remember the names of strangers in a photo. MRI scans recorded images of their brain activity as they learned the names. Older adults with high levels of heart and lung fitness did better on the test and showed more brain activity when learning new names than those of peers with lower levels of heart and lung fitness.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, researchers looked at the connection between weight-training and brain function. Researchers had 100 people aged 55 to 86, all with mild memory and thinking problems, train with weights twice a week for six months. Participants showed significant improvement in mental function, which lasted for more than a year.

So take heart. No matter your age or state of health, it’s never too late to exercise. The best exercise is the one you’ll do. If you love to walk, lace up your shoes. If dancing’s your thing, cut a rug. Like to golf? Bring your A game. You can tend your garden or renew your gym membership. The possibilities are endless. Whatever you do, aim to meet the American Heart Association’s recommendation of at least 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise,  or a combination.

Young people shouldn’t get a monopoly on the vigor of youth. They just waste it. You can be young in mind and body by making exercise part of your daily routine. Figure out what kind of movement you enjoy most and go for it!

Should I do cardio before breakfast to lose fat?

It makes perfect sense. While you sleep, your body depletes its stores of glycogen, (which come from carbs and your body uses for energy). If you do cardio before breakfast, your body will have to burn up fat for energy instead of burning up carbs. Presto chango, the fat burns away! Alas, it’s not so easy.

Exercise affects how your body burns fat over the course of days, not just hour to hour. Your body continually adjusts its use of fat and carbohydrate for fuel. If you burn more fat during a workout, you’ll burn more carbohydrates, but not as much fat, the rest of the day.

Sadly, your body just can’t use all that fat for fuel. During moderate-to-high intensity levels of exercise, the body breaks down significantly more fat when fasted. Unfortunately, the rate of breakdown exceeds the body’s ability to use the extra fatty acids for fuel. In other words, you have a lot of extra fatty acids floating around in the blood that can’t be used by working muscles. After your workout, these fatty acids shuttle back into fat cells, leaving you where you started. Why did I get up so early?

Have you ever tried to do a strenuous workout on an empty stomach? Before long you run out of gas. Your body needs those carbs for energy. So you burn fewer calories both during and after exercise, meaning you burn less fat.

Your body has to get energy from somewhere, and that somewhere is protein. Burning protein means losing muscle. Protein losses can exceed ten percent of the total calories burned over the course of a one-hour cardio session — more than double that of training after you’ve eaten.

If you work out first thing in the morning, eat some carbs and protein first. If you eat first, the vast majority of calories expended after you exercise come from fat!

Leave the Potatoes on the Couch: Exercise Key to Healthy Aging

If I haven’t worked out in years, is there any benefit to starting an exercise program now?

Absolutely yes. Whether you haven’t exerted yourself in quite a while, or never exercised, working out will make a huge difference.

In a paper published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers studied 3454 people, average age 64, who were either inactive, moderately active (at least one moderate physical activity a week), or vigorously active (at least one vigorous activity a week). Those who became physically active, compared to those who remained inactive, were more than three times as likely to be “healthy agers.” Healthy aging was defined as (1) being free from major chronic disease; (2) having no major impairment of cognitive function; (3) having no major limitation of physical functions and (4) and having good mental health. One scientist said, “This research shows us that even if you don’t become active until later in life, your health will still benefit.” So don’t think it’s too late. You can reap huge benefits from exercise, no matter when you start.