Your sedentary desk job or weekend couch potato tendencies may be doing more damage than to your waist line or heart health!
It may also be impacting your brain health!
New research suggests that weight bearing exercise sends signals to the brain to produce and protect neural cells.
In a group of mice whose hind leg movement was restricted for 28 days neural stem cells in the subventricular zone of the brain were decreased by 70% compared to freely moving mice.
Lack of hind leg movement stopped or slowed “neurogenesis” – the growth of new neural stem cells – negatively affecting the nervous system.
Also, the activity of two important genes associated with our cellular powerhouses that create energy in every cell of our bodies – the mitochondria – were altered.
These findings may help explain why a UK twin study found the twin with better leg strength was more likely to maintain their cognition and have fewer brain changes in old age.
Our bodies were made to hunt, gather, sit, stand, crouch, walk, run and lift on earth – against gravity!
Now that as a society we are spending less time in our natural state, these studies are showing the importance of exercise.
Specifically – the importance of exercising our legs!
Use gravity to your advantage by doing resistance or weight training.
This may be the key to ensuring long term brain health and cognition into old age!
Is it time for you to combat your sedentary lifestyle?
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References:
- Raffaella Adami, Jessica Pagano, Michela Colombo, Natalia Platonova, Deborah Recchia, Raffaella Chiaramonte, Roberto Bottinelli, Monica Canepari, Daniele Bottai. Reduction of Movement in Neurological Diseases: Effects on Neural Stem Cells Characteristics. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2018; 12 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00336
- TwinsUK. http://www.twinsuk.ac.uk/