BE SMART: EXERCISE THE BRAIN AS MUCH AS YOU EXERCISE THE BODY

When will people finally learn and acknowledge that the most complex organ housed in the human body is the one that requires the most exercise and probably gets the least?

Arguable perhaps but let’s not engage in a spitting contest with respect to the relative importance of say the brain versus the heart. Or the lungs. Or the liver. Or the kidneys.

It is widely held that the human brain ranks #1 on the top-ten list of the body’s most important organs.

(The heart, lungs, liver, stomach, kidneys, eyes, intestines, veins and the pituitary in order, are thought to round out the list).

Certainly each organ plays a significant role in the human body system. And each performs a specific task. Most can benefit from either exercise, clean living or both, along with good genes of course.

Then there’s God’s will but that, in and of itself, represents something else altogether and shall be explored another time.

In the world of human anatomy, cells are the building blocks of life. In lay terms they combine to form tissues, groups of which create an organ made for a particular purpose.

The human brain is the master of all of the functions, actions and organs of the body.

In humans the largest part of the brain contains 15–33 billion brain cells or neurons which communicate with one another courtesy of axons — long fibers transporting trains of signal pulses. These pulses are carried to distant parts of the brain or body targeting specific cells. Brain functions include information processing; language; perception; movement control; arousal; homeostasis; motivation; learning; and memory.

And this is the bare bones of it, if you’ll pardon the expression.

Signal pulses or “electrical pulses” are sent between the brain and nerves and propagated along a nerve fiber until reaching the targeted organ. A neuronal cell is made up of a body — dendrites — which receives signals from other cells and conveys signals towards the cell body by creating small electrical currents, along with the aforementioned long extended sprouting structures — axons — which carry and deliver the short electrical discharge or pulse(s).

This wave of electrical activity that passes from one end of a neuron to another constitutes a nerve impulse — the signal or electrical pulses.

Ferrying these signals efficiently between the brain and the body is what it’s all about.

A taken-for-granted anatomical miracle when an individual’s stars are properly aligned and a road fraught with peril and leading to hell when life — in the all-too-real form of illness, disease or injury — intervenes.

It is hardly a stretch to assume that the rational human being should be keenly interested in preserving and augmenting this remarkably complex and vital organ.

The brain is said to behave like a muscle in that the more it’s used, the stronger it becomes.

Well, why in the name of I don’t know whom or what don’t we all make a concerted effort to do that?

It’s not that hard.

There’s a myriad of ways to exercise the brain.

Widely documented is the notion that exercise changes the structure and function of the human brain. Physical activity generally increases brain volume and can reduce the number and size of age-related holes in the brain’s white and gray matter. In addition, exercise stimulates and enhances adult neurogenesis, the creation of new brain cells in an already mature brain.

But according to a fascinating new study in rats, scientists have discovered the possibility that different types of exercise have unique and variant effects on the brain.

For the first time, scientists compared running, weight training and high-intensity interval training — with a sedentary grouping included to serve as a barometer of sorts — in an effort to assess the relative neurological impacts and the results were startling.

Running doubled or even tripled the number of new neurons that appeared afterward in the animals’ hippocampus, a key area of the brain for learning and memory and the impact is believed to be similar on the human hippocampus.

The rats that jogged on wheels not only showed robust levels of neurogenesis but their hippocampal tissue was bustling with new neurons, far more than in the brains of the sedentary animals and directly linked to distance covered. The longer the distance, the greater the number of new cells created.

Resistance training which for rats entailed climbing a wall with tiny weights affixed to their tails made them much stronger but showed no discernible neurogenesis augmentation; their hippocampal tissue looked just like that of their sedentary counterparts.

And as for the rats subjected to high-intensity interval training, they showed higher levels of new neurons created than their sedentary brethren (sisterhood?) but far lesser levels than in the distance-running rats.

Rats are not people but the finding that “sustained aerobic exercise might be most beneficial for brain health also in humans,” is provocative to say the very least.

And it’s not only physical exercise that need be at work here.

Researchers believe that adherence to a “brain-healthy lifestyle” and exposure to a regular regimen of targeted brain exercises can increase the brain’s cognitive reserve or its ability to withstand the neurological damage inflicted by ageing.

Participation in healthy lifestyle behaviors such as non-smoking; low to moderate alcohol intake; optimal BMI maintenance; high fruit and vegetable consumption; and regular physical activity all help to dramatically reduce the risk (by as much as 60%) of developing cognitive impairment or dementia.

Experts feel that brain training focusing on real-world activities as opposed to gimmickry is a recommended course.

Actions as seemingly trivial as driving home via a different route or brushing teeth with the opposite hand can be of value, as the brain works through associations.

More mainstream activity in this context might include the testing of recall through memorization and subsequent re-visitation; learning to play a musical instrument; doing math in your head; taking a cooking class; learning a foreign language; refining hand-eye abilities and fine-motor skills through knitting, drawing, painting, or doing a puzzle; playing word games; and even challenging your taste buds by attempting to identify and pinpoint individual ingredients in your meal including subtle and esoteric herbs and spices.

The bottom line is that the brain is king and Long Live The King.

We can do something about the monarchy’s length of rule and the King’s viability, longevity and life expectancy.

So let’s take the plunge and do it.

Makes sense right?

[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in December 2016.]