I am currently reading Dr John Ratey’s excellent book “Spark! How exercise will improve the performance of your brain.”
In his book he describes clearly how exercise helps our brain in so many ways:
• helping us to learn in the classroom at school and beyond,
• to manage stress and fend off anxiety and depression,
• improving our ability to focus and pay attention,
• stabilising mood swings associated with hormonal change,
• to remaining cognitively fit as we age.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been having a bit of a rant about our local school reducing the amount of time allocated to its pupils for physical activity from five sessions to just two over a 6 day teaching cycle. This is because of the school’s perception that the students would benefit more from having more classroom time with their teachers from Year 11. This is the time when the pressure to do well in the TEE exams at the end of Year 12 starts to build.
If only the school had read Dr Ratey’s book.
Don’t worry I’m going to ensure they get a copy.

My good friend David Beard, an exercise physiologist here in Perth showed me an article published in the UWA Uniview magazine this week. Dr. Karen Martin, Research Assistant Professor from the School of Population Health discussed her findings from her PhD study where she looked at how the physical, social and policy environments of a school are associated with physical activity of students.

So what were her overall findings?

That a greater focus on physical education (PE) delivered by trained teachers, at school, in clubs or on the local oval would bring a string of benefits:
• Improved concentration in class
• Better academic results
• Increased self esteem
• Less absenteeism
• More attention to homework.

It sounds the answer to every teacher’s prayer!
Our daughter’s school is going to get a copy of this too.

Walking in middle age to protect our memory.

New research published in “Neurology” suggests that walking for at least 9 to 10 kilometres a week will, by protecting brain size assist us in preserving our memory as we age.
Brain shrinkage is normal. We all start losing brain volume from our twenties, albeit at a very low rate of 0.2% per year. This shrinkage rate increases once we reach our sixties and is faster still if we subsequently develop mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease.

In this study, 299 middle-aged people were followed over a period of 14 years. They basically just had to record the number of “blocks” they walked each week. Brain scans performed nine years later showed that those who regularly walked between nine to fourteen kilometres a week retained a greater amount of grey matter ie brain cells, than those who walked less. Walking further interestingly did not confer any additional benefit.
Four years later, cognitive tests showed that 40% of the participants had developed cognitive impairment or dementia. But those who had walked the most, showed half the risk of developing memory problems.

This suggests that a regular exercise program for everyone in his or her midlife may help to prevent the onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s.
So many times the main excuse I hear from people who are yet to “get around” to exercise in any shape or form is that they are too busy.

If the choice is between taking thirty minutes out of my day to exercise, so that I can keep my brain working the way I want it to for as long as possible or choosing to skip the exercise and just take the risk that memory impairment might hit earlier. I choose to get out there and walk.

So what’s your choice?

Scary Stats from the States.

I am always fascinated by what appear to be quirky stats, but these just blew me away. I wonder how Australians would compare?

80,000 Americans were surveyed over a five-year period to ascertain how much time they spent in either sedentary, light, moderate or vigorous activities on a daily basis.

Are you ready for this?

Only 5% reported doing any vigorous activity of any shape or form.

Most reported spending their time in sedentary activities:
95.6% were eating and drinking
80% were watching TV

Of the light activities:
79% did washing, dressing and personal grooming
71% drove a car, truck or motorbike

The most frequently reported moderate activities included:
26% were involved in food and drink preparation
10% were undertaking lawn, garden and houseplant care.

And finally those engaged in some form of vigorous activity
2.2% used cardiovascular equipment and
1.1% went running.

Those statistics fair took my breath away.
If you took a look at your average day, how would you compare to the average American?

References:

K.I. Erickson, C.A. Raji, O.L. Lopez, J.T. Becker, C. Rosano, A.B. Newman, H.M. Gach, P.M. Thompson, A.J. Ho, and L.H. Kuller. Physical activity predicts gray matter volume in late adulthood: The Cardiovascular Health Study. Neurology, 2010; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181f88359

Catrine Tudor-Locke, PhD, William D Johnson, PhD, and Peter T Katzmarzyk, PhD. Frequently Reported Activities by Intensity for U.S. Adults: The American Time-Use Survey. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 39, Issue 4 (October 2010) DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2010.05.017

I had heard on the grapevine that our daughter’s school was introducing some changes for those girls entering year 11 (15 and 16 year olds) in 2011.
The amount of physical education or “recreation” time allocated on the timetable is to be reduced from 5 periods over six days to just two. Roughly this equates to two lots of 40 minutes. Because it is a 6-day cycle then some weeks the girls may actually only get one period of activity.

I telephoned the school to seek clarification on whether what I had heard was correct. I was informed that yes it was, that is had been a difficult decision and not undertaken lightly.
What was the reason for this?
A decision has been taken to allocate more class-work time to teachers. All girls will now be studying six subjects, and this will enable the school to fall “into line” with other educational establishments. I was reminded that all parents of the school had an expectation for their daughters to perform well academically, and that this initiative would help the girls achieve that desired outcome.

It would appear that these educators are going down the track of thinking that more classroom time will equate to a couple of extra marks in the TEE.
Worse still, this school is not isolated in its way of thinking as other schools have apparently for similar curricular and administrative reasons have chosen to abandon or reduce the amount of physical exercise in the weekly timetable for their students.

I was informed the girls would have the opportunity to participate in physical exercise after school.
Yeah right.
That might work for those girls who are sufficiently motivated to do so. But what of the others who may have other after school commitments, whether it is music, drama, a part time job or just sheer large volume of homework? What about those girls who don’t particularly like exercise and are more than happy to have a very valid reason not to have to do it?

Our society is becoming increasingly sedentary.
Our society is becoming increasingly obese.
Both these factors are contributing to a rise in early death.
In the States one in three people are expected to develop type two diabetes, which will shorten their lifespan by 10 to 15 years.
Girls particularly those in their young teens are easily turned off exercise. Once that habit is lost it is highly unlikely they will return to sport and exercise after they have left school.

Importantly there is also an abundance of research available which has revealed the importance of exercise for learning and memory and for young brains especially.

In the 1990’s Dr Fred Gage and colleagues at the Salk Institute San Diego showed that human and animal brains could produce new brain cells. This process is called neurogenesis. They then demonstrated that exercise increases this.

Exercise fundamentally changes the structure of the brain and affects thinking. Doing more exercise will not turn you into a genius, but even a modest increase in physical activity will help to increase new brain cell production.
It needs to be aerobic exercise as well. This stimulates an increase in the blood flow to the brain and encourages new capillary networks to form. This will allow more oxygen and essential nutrients to reach the brain but it also allows various growth factors to affect the brain creating new neurons and new brain connections.

Exercise has now been shown to stimulate the production of a number of brain proteins one of which is appropriately called Noggin. This works as an antagonist to another brain protein called BMP, which dampens down new brain cell formation. More Noggin, more brain cell production.
Exercise also raises the amount of BDNF a factor which assists new brain cells to survive, mature and integrate into existing neural pathways.

A recent study in Illinois looked at the brains of 9 and 10 year old children. They found that those who were the fittest (based on treadmill tests) scored better on cognitive tests. All the kids were from the same demographics, socio-economic background, body mass index etc. MRI scans of their brains showed that the fitter the child, the larger the area of their brain involved in their ability to maintain attention and executive control.

A second study again in Illinois, using a similar age group of children used MRI brain scans as well, to look at the size of their hippocampi, the area of the brain associated with memory and learning. This study showed that the fittest children had heavier hippocampi, the area of the brain associated with this type of thinking. The most physically fit children did better on memory tests, in particular on tests of relational memory where they had to remember and integrate various types of information

Interestingly Professor C Hillman from Illinois has reported results indicating that undertaking 20 minutes of walking before a test raised the results of the scores, even if the child was otherwise unfit or overweight.

Somehow as parents, we have to get the message through to our schools that their current path of just adding more class time will actually work against our children’s ability to learn, unless it is paired with aerobic exercise.

It looks as if it will be up to us as parents to stand up to the school establishments and tell them that in this instance they are just plain wrong.
Lets get our kids back in a learning environment that will not only assist their ability to do well academically, but also keep them mentally and physically healthy.

References:

Laura Chaddock, Kirk I. Erickson, Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, Jennifer S. Kim, Michelle W. Voss, Matt VanPatter, Matthew B. Pontifex, Lauren B. Raine, Alex Konkel, Charles H. Hillman. A neuroimaging investigation of the association between aerobic fitness, hippocampal volume and memory performance in preadolescent children. Brain Research, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2010.08.049

American Heart Association (2010, March 4). Students’ physical fitness associated with academic achievement; organized physical activity.

Chomitz et al. Is There a Relationship Between Physical Fitness and Academic Achievement? Positive Results From Public School Children in the Northeastern United States. Journal of School Health, 2009; 79 (1): 30 DOI: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2008.00371.x

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1999, November 10). Exercise Improves Learning And Memory.

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
Ratey, J. MD [Little, Brown and Company (January 10, 2008)]

And an interesting website http://johnratey.typepad.com/

It has been well documented that physical exercise promotes better brain health.

As we get older we become aware that our reaction times in thinking becomes slower, we are less adept at planning and multi tasking. We find it harder to take in and remember new information. We find our ability to concentrate and focus diminishes and we may even notice symptoms of the onset of neurodegenerative disease. Yikes!

But do you have to go to the gym to be getting the necessary exercise to maintain good body and brain health?

Does the thought of donning lycra, using muscles you never know you even had, and getting really sweaty and puffed, (or being in the close vicinity to someone else in lycra who is sweaty and puffed) not inspire you to want to exercise?

Well the good news is. You don’t have to.

The key is regular exercise and it can be as simple as starting with increasing opportunistic activity.

It can be walking, swimming, running, golfing ,cycling, whatever you like and are happy to persist with. It can even include  going to the gym (lycra not essential)

What could you do at work to increase your activity levels?

Are you stuck at a desk all day in front of a computer screen?

The first thing is to get you up and off your bottom. Try planning in 10 minute slots where you get up, have a bit of a stretch and move and walk around the office. Better still, try to get outside into the fresh air.

It’s like long distance flying. After sitting on your bottom for too long in an aircraft we know the need to get up and have a stretch.

When parking your car either for work, at the shops  or elsewhere, rather than spending time trying desperately to get the closest spot to the nearest entrance, try parking a little further away from your destination so that you have to walk that incremental distance, plus you may find a greater number of freer spots to park in.

If there is the choice of the elevator or the stairs, take the stairs.

Get a dog! They are always ready for a walk and will provide the necessary incentive with a wag of the tail, fetching the lead (or even the trainers) and of course look at you with those big brown pleading eyes.

Is it ever too late to start exercising?

Absolutely not.

Obviously, the earlier the better. Kids who participate in sport in childhood and adolescence have been shown to tend to do better academically, and be better adjusted in terms of mood.

The aim is to carry on through out our lives participating in some form of regular activity that we enjoy.

The key is consistency.We need to be making exercise part of our every day lives that we simply do.

Studies have shown that  going for a walk every day for 20 minutes will add significantly to our overall well being and reduce our risk of stroke (by 57%).

Walking three times a week for 30 minutes has been shown to diminish our risk of developing dementia by 10% at least.

Walking that bit further is even better with improved benefits for every additional kilometre walked.

If we are feeling a bit stressed, under the pump or have a problem, going for a walk will help us to gain clarity in our thoughts and enable us to resolve these issues as well as improve our overall sense of well being.

When we exercise, we increase the amount of blood flow to our brain and that also means the brain receives more oxygen and glucose.

Regular activity will promote the formation of new blood vessels in the brain, we have greater energy production and our existing brain cells have a better chance of survival.

Even better, studies have shown that regular exercise enhances neurogenesis or the production of new brain cells in the hippocampus. This is a specialised area of the brain that is particularly important for learning and memory.

And yes there is more.

The extra “steak knives” on offer is that exercise stimulates the increased production of substances called BDNF’s which are crucial to supporting and nourishing existing brain cells.

Those who exercise more, show less loss of grey matter which means greater retention of the executive functions of the frontal lobes in reference to better concentration, attention and planning.

Plus, it appears that exercise can induce a change in the expression pattern of a wide array of genes. This is particularly important for example where  someone may be carrying a gene which may put them at increased risk of developing something like Alzheimer’s disease. If that gene is not expressed or if the expression is delayed, that could have a significant impact on that person in reducing or delaying the probability of them developing the disease.

The bottom line is that participating regularly in physical activity has clear benefits in assisting us to maintain good brain health and improving our cognitive function.

It’s a no brainer not to be exercising.

Now where did I put my trainers?

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