????♀? The Importance of Movement on the Brain

Movement is considered the first language of human beings

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Hey Friends,

I packed last month with a lot of extra content. I published...

3 newsletters

• ?? Why Do We Yawn?
• ???? Why Do We Yawn on Psychedelics?
• ??A New Era of Sun Protection

1 guidebook

• Guidebook: Age-Fighting Drugs For Longevity

3 podcasts

• ???INTERVIEW | Your Rate of Aging with Michael Geer, Co-Founder of Humanity
• ???INTERVIEW | The Holistic Approach to Brain Health with Dr. Sabine Krofczik-Wilhelm
• ???INTERVIEW | Techniques for Effective Integration with Amánda Argot Efthimiou

And I have a question for you….

Would you like me to continue to include this much content in the future?

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Your feedback is super valuable!?

?? In this note:

• ????♀? The Importance of Movement on the Brain
• ?? The Man Who Fell To Earth
• ?? A $400 Pineapple

???? The Importance of Movement on the Brain

I was inspired to finally write this article (it’s one that’s been on my Topics list for a long time) because I saw this video on social media, about all the playtime kids get at school in China .?

What was compelling about this video is a key point the creator made, that our brains are made for movement.?

He says that we evolved brains for movement.?

Plants are alive, but they aren’t moving, so they don’t need a brain.?

Humans & animals have a brain, therefore we need to move.

We all know we need to exercise more.

And the way I’m looking at this problem, is that it’s not just the need to exercise, we as a society need to move more.

Right now, half of U.S. adults spend 9.5 hours of their day sitting .

This is not just at work.?

US Adults spend 80% of their leisure time sitting as well.

This is scary because lack of movement has been linked to neurological problems, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and mortality.

Our brains are meant to move, and that lack of movement also leads to decreases in brain health.

Sedentary Lifestyle Is Linked to Increased Dementia Risk

Previously, sedentary behavior was linked to cognitive and structural brain aging .?

Let me just repeat that in case the link was distracting…?

Lack of movement is linked to brain aging!

Researchers were then curious to see if lack of movement is also associated with dementia.

So, in September 2023, a retrospective study was conducted using data collected from roughly 50,000 patients participating in the UK biobank to determine whether there was an association between sedentary behavior and the risk of all-cause dementia.

Using a wrist-worn accelerometer (basically a FitBit or AppleWatch), the researchers determined sedentary behavior using a machine learning analysis.

Then, inpatient hospital records and death records were used to determine incidence of dementia diagnoses.

Classes of sedentary behavior were divided into three groups:?

• ~9 hours per day?
• 12 hours per day?
• 15 hours per day?

The hours logged of these groups are for awake behavior that is sedentary or inactive.

This does not include sleeping hours.

So, just to really break this down for you….?

The people sitting for 15 hours a day are probably also sleeping ~8 hours a day.?

Leaving…1 hour of the day open for movement.

Alternatively, those who are sedentary for 9 hours a day (more or less a typical work day) and also sleeping 8 hours a day, have 7 waking hours to be active and non-sedentary.

The results of the study showed a nonlinear relationship between daily sedentary behavior time and dementia incidence.?

Phew! A Nonlinear relationship is a good thing here.

What the results showed was that risk of dementia increases after ~10 hours of sedentary behavior per day.

Keep in mind that the average sedentary behavior of US adults is 9.5 hours, and the risk of dementia in this study rises around 10 hours.?

Alarm bells should be sounding after 9 hours of inactivity.

You know something like when Netflix asks - Are you still watching??

A little challenge for you - take a look at your routine, how many hours a day are you spending sedentary??

If you are above 10 hours, I hope this data can be a warning to incorporate more physical activity and movement into your daily life.

To really double down on the need for movement for our brain health and cognitive health, another study correlated sedentary behavior (such as TV watching) with increased dementia risk.

Now that I’ve terrified you from your desk chair & couch….let’s talk about the positives of movement on the brain.

Being Physically Active Promotes Brain Growth

Exercise is like a boot camp for the brain.

Studies have shown that brain plasticity and cognitive function are significantly improved by physical activity.

This means that not only does exercise make you sharper, but also improves your ability to learn new skills.

In your brain the molecule called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) is responsible for the growth and repair of neurons and the connections between them.

Physical activity and movement creates an increased production of BDNF .?

Stronger neuronal connections means sharper memory, improved learning, emotional levels, energy levels and motivation.

It even means better decision-making. All thanks for getting your body moving!

Even a single 30-min sweat session can give your brain a memory boost.?

Studies show that 30 minutes of physical activity is related to increases in neuroplasticity leading to improvements in both motor skills (like learning a new dance move) and factual memory (remembering facts before a big exam).

Movement and exercise are a mood booster too.

Movement triggers the release of the feel-good neurochemicals that combat depression, fatigue, stress and even ADHD/ADD symptoms.

Plus, the accomplishment of completing a workout promoted the neurochemicals that provide a sense of reward, accomplishment, pleasure and achievement .

Making you feel that you can tackle anything that comes in your way.

It’s not always about getting a sweat session in.?

You can also boost your brain health and mood with increased NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). NEAT is everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise.

Read more about NEAT in Nina’s Notes #49 .?

Studying the Brain Through Movement

Just as we study how movement improves cognitive function, we can also study how the brain works through movement.

Scientists study movements and how they relate to brain function by using motion capture.

Motion capture is done using sophisticated tools such as markered or markerless methods.

Markered tracking is when sensors are placed on a person’s body, a hand for example, and as the hand moves from one location to another, the sensors track the path the hand travels.

Markerless tracking can perform the same function without the markers, using a 360 camera system in a room, or a smartphone camera.

Motion capture can provide detailed information about our movements that our eyes cannot see.

It acts as a tool to provide researchers with a detailed picture of how our bodies move, which can then be used to infer what’s happening inside the brain.

Motion capture offers a promising way to create more objective, quantitative and data-driven analysis of movements, which can be used to assess, diagnose and treat movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s Disease, or for loss of movement after a stroke or traumatic brain injury.

Motion tracking combined with brain scanning (such as EEG of fMRI) can show which regions of the brain are active during specific movements.

By analyzing both the movement data and the brain activity simultaneously, researchers can understand how the brain plans, executes and adjusts movements.

This enables investigation of the neurophysiology of brain areas involved with movement disorders.

In the future, we will see markerless tracking aiding in the diagnosis, assessment, treatment and management of movement disorders.

Who’s working on it?

1?? Machine Medicine has a markerless tracking Parkinson’s Disease assessment tool called Kelvin , which is used in clinics across the world to objectively quantify subtle movement variations during clinical exams, leading to more consistent assessments.

2?? Sword Health has a suite of digital physical therapy solutions that leverage motion capture to provide a personalized experience with real-time feedback, as effective as in-person PT.

3?? MindMaze leverages motion capture and immersive gaming to develop rehabilitation programs for stroke and various movement disorders .

4?? Microsoft Kinect - originally developed for gaming, the Kinect sensor has been used in research studies for movement disorder assessment. It may be dead in the gaming world but revolutionary in the lab for low-cost motion capture.

?? Book of the Week

Not a book, another show.

The Man Who Fell To Earth

Rating: ★★★☆☆

An alien comes to earth. His planet is dying and he must find a brilliant scientist to help him save his species.

Together they embark on a series of adventures to create cold fusion and find another alien that has come to Earth before. Along the way, these aliens begin to adopt human habits, feelings and emotions.?

The CIA and Big Tech get involved and chaos ensues.

The show was good. I was entertained.?

Will I set a countdown clock for season 2??

Probably not.?

?? Check This Out

A $400 pineapple?!

Fresh Del Monte debuted its red Rubyglow pineapples in the U.S, after its initial launch in January in China.

The pineapples were developed over 15 years and are described as a cross between a traditional pineapple and the dark red-purple Morada variety from Venezuela and Colombia.

These red-shelled Rubyglow pineapples have been patented in the U.S.

This hybrid fruit takes two years to grow and only a few thousand are produced annually, making it one of the most limited-produced items on the market.

These rare? pineapples are sold without their spiky crown, in a box that unfolds like origami.

Want to try the Rubygold pineapple??

You can join the waitlist on Fresh Del Monte’s website!

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Edited by Wright Time Publishing