
Exercise is good for boosting memory and thinking skills, new guidelines say - DoreenMichele
http://beta.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-exercise-mild-cognitive-impairment-20171228-story.html
======
grwthckrmstr
If you're like me who's read enough from enough sources, you'll have likely
arrived at the same conclusion.

To be healthy (which can have many implications,including and not limited to
better memory, thinking skills, lifespan etc.), You need to master a few basic
principles in life.

Those basic principles seem to be

Body - adequate rest (sleep), regular exercise (activity) etc. & Mind - less
stress/destress, positive mind, happiness etc.

Huh. Rocket science?

~~~
sus_007
As you've read from different sources, how much sleep do you consider as an
adequate amount of sleep for a day ?

~~~
Fire-Dragon-DoL
I think it's based on your body. Mine is very explicit: if I sleep less than 8
hours my stomach burns. If I sleep less than 7 my brain is useless. So, 8 for
me (my wife needs 9!).

My general suggestion is that you should naturally wake up before the alarm
rings. I set it to 9 hours and naturally wake up between 8 and 8:30 hours.

~~~
swah
If I "naturally" wake up after 6/6.5 hours, does that mean that my body needs
less sleep, or I should control more variables to sleep 8 hours (light,
temperature, melatonin..) ?

(I do feel great some days when I sleep for longer..)

~~~
cesnja
Experiment by going to bed sooner. Personally I figured out there's a certain
time in the morning when I'll wake up which does not depend on the time spent
sleeping. After some trials, I figured that less than ~7 hours of sleep will
leave me in a bad mood, but only in the afternoon -- I seem to function quite
well in the morning.

------
Fire-Dragon-DoL
All these things.. I started exercising in May, my brain was working fine
before and I see no difference now that I'm exercising. The improvements are
my muscles (yay), my back pain is gone, and I can eat more. But that's it.

Oh and contrary to popular belief, I sleep worse when I exercise because
overnight my body emits so much heat that I sweat myself (but if I don't cover
myself I get woke up by cold), and the adrenaline is there and makes harder to
fall asleep (even 4 hours after gym).

I still sleep better without sport. But I'm happy that backpain is gone and I
can eat more, so I'm going to stick with it ;)

~~~
super_mario
Not all exercise is the same when it comes to brain benefits. Moderate to hard
endurance exercise makes your brain secrete BDNF. And you need to perform it
at least 3 times a week for 20-30 min minimum to notice any benefits.

Strength training on the other hand does nothing for your brain.

See "Bran Rules" talk by Dr. John Medina @Google:

[https://youtu.be/IK1nMQq67VI](https://youtu.be/IK1nMQq67VI)

~~~
Toast_25
Thanks for pointing this out! I've been only doing strength training for the
last year and been wondering why I haven't felt as sharp as when I ran
somewhat regularly.

------
Jach
Title is pretty bad. The actual claim is "exercising twice a week may help
preserve memory and thinking skills in people with mild cognitive impairment."

Meanwhile things like
[https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.0064...](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00642/full)
directly contradict the title. That is, exercise et al. are good to help
cognitive functioning but have no prediction on cognitive performance.

------
Toast_25
This just in, your brain is _actually_ part of your body! Taking care of it
might make you think better, stay tuned folks!

In all seriousness, if anybody here has a beer or glass of wine before you go
to sleep, cut it out for a week or two. You'll notice a HUGE improvement in
sleep quality.

------
hackermailman
Some schools in Canada use exercise bikes to help kids focus on lessons,
though there's little research on this
[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/stationary-bikes-
in-...](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/stationary-bikes-in-the-
classroom-are-we-spinning-out-of-control/article29770497/)

My own anecdote is it seems to work, 20-30mins of high intensity bike riding
followed by a shower and somehow I can sit and do 2-3 hours worth of focused
work on a math text without my mind jumping around distracted in random
thoughts or becoming bored.

------
lucidguppy
It would be nice if the government came up with a basic calisthenics program
for the average person to follow.

A lot of people cant afford a gym - or sometimes it's too cold.

There is so much info about exercise and health that it ends up being "non-
information". People give up. If the public health system gave a consistent
message about exercise when you can't afford a gym or if it's too cold out -
people would be better off.

~~~
Jach
I really doubt this information overload is the limiting factor. Everyone
knows what a pushup is. Everyone had to take PE in public schooling
(government already solved your problem) and knows many exercises that can be
done indoors without needing the whole gym. But exercise sucks.

~~~
0xcde4c3db
> I really doubt this information overload is the limiting factor.

It's definitely _a_ factor. Even if you filter out the utter bullshit (which
is a task in itself), there's a huge amount of stuff out there around the
theme of "exercising wrong", most of which doesn't agree about anything
outside a handful of basics (e.g. sit-ups aren't very good at engaging abs)
and much of which warns of injury if you fail to heed the advice. Are crunches
a good exercise, or will they wreck my spine? How deep should I squat? What
are the tradeoffs between high weight/low reps versus low weight/high reps?
Are resistance bands or dumbbells worthwhile, or is barbell training so
superior that anything else is a waste of time? The answers all seem to depend
on which "school" of exercise you subscribe to.

> Everyone knows what a pushup is.

I know what a pushup is, but I can't actually _do_ one, and it's not obvious
how to progress it in a practical way ("wall pushups" aren't challenging, but
going down to chair level is too much). There are a lot of practical issues
like this that are glossed over by mainstream exercise advice (most of which
seems to be written for relatively young, fit people with no chronic health
issues that might interfere).

> But exercise sucks.

There's a huge amount of disagreement on this as well. Statements like "your
body _wants_ to move" are a common refrain from fitness gurus, for example.
The chemical and neurological responses to exercise seem to vary quite a bit
throughout the population, all the way from exercise triggering euphoria to
exercise triggering depression (but it's only socially accepted to advertise
the former). It's also pretty common in exercise studies for a given outcome
measure to get no better or even get worse in ~10% of subjects, even when the
average response is a statistically significant improvement. Conversely,
there's often a ~10% with a markedly above-average improvement; this has been
spun by the popular press as some people being "superexercisers" and others
being "non-responders", but it seems to be much more complicated than that
(i.e. one can be a "superexerciser" on one axis but a "non-responder" on
another).

~~~
Jach
I pretty much entirely agree with that, there is a lot of complexity and it
can play a role in deciding to just avoid everything. Though in practice I
think the complexity effect is overblown, and the role in deciding to do
nothing is small (I'd bet the role is larger in deciding to do lots of
different things unsuccessfully because one quits the current thing after it
becomes difficult). Though if the complexity mattered all that much, this just
sounds like the OP's desire for a government-approved 'average' outside of
what exists in required PE is even more ludicrous.

------
skydv
i say daily. If I don't do it only one day, next day I can't really code until
I jog for 40 min. Then the mind becomes clear

------
Dowwie
Aerobic exercise dramatically reduces cognitive function for hours immediately
afterwards. How does this resolve with these findings?

~~~
darrenf
My anecdotal experience (5-10k run 3 lunchtimes a week, followed by productive
afternoons) doesn't seem to back this up. Can you quote a source for those
findings?

