Weight Training – Good for the Brain Too?

July 25, 2019 Tim Aging & Health Comments Off on Weight Training – Good for the Brain Too?
Disclosure: Links to other sites may be affiliate links that generate us a small commission at no extra cost to you.

A new study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology seems to show that weight training has beneficial effects on the brain (in lab mice.)[1]

Resistance exercise training (also called strength training, or weight training) is believed to have beneficial effects on the cognitive impairment that can precede neuroinflammatory disease.

But, what has not been discovered is why weight training helps.

Does weight training have healthy effects on the human brain - as it seems to do for lab mice?
Does weight training have healthy effects on the human brain – as it seems to do for lab mice?

This study attempted to do just that.

Lab rats with an artificially induced form of cognition impairment were monitored after having performed resistance training exercise. How do you make a rat do weight training? The researchers had the rats perform ladder climbs (for treats) with additional weight resistance.

The rats gained muscle mass and strength – but that was just one benefit.

The researchers found signs of the brain re-generating neurons to fix the cognitive impairment.

It appears that as few as 3 exercise sessions per week provide the beneficial effects on brain function – and seem to restore mental cognition to previous levels.

Rats that had fewer exercise sessions did not see the same benefit, nor did rats that didn’t exercise at all.

Does this apply to humans? and would it apply to a healthy (un-impaired) human brain?

We don’t know for sure – but it is reasonable to think it might.

We recommend strength training as an important component of overall physical fitness, health, and mental well-being.

References

1. Taylor J. Kelty, Todd R. Schachtman, Xuansong Mao, Kolter B. Grigsby, Thomas E. Childs Resistance-exercise training ameliorates LPS-induced cognitive impairment concurrent with molecular signaling changes in the rat dentate gyrus. J Appl Physiol. 2019 Jul 15. doi: https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00249.2019.

Lab mouse - used for testing and researching health

Related Articles

No Picture
Aging & Health

Research Study: Higher Muscle Mass Linked to Lower Heart Disease Risk

December 22, 2021 Tim Aging & Health Comments Off on Research Study: Higher Muscle Mass Linked to Lower Heart Disease Risk
Disclosure: Links to other sites may be affiliate links that generate us a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Do you have cardiovascular disease as part of your family history? Do you want to prevent heart disease, which is known as one of the most common mortality factors? A new research study[1] shows that the more muscle mass a person has upon entering middle age, the lower their risk of cardiovascular disease as they grow older. What was the Goal of the Research Study? An international group of researchers published their paper in the January issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health with the goal of assessing the relationship between skeletal muscle mass and cardiovascular disease incidence over a 10-year span of time. The study was conducted on adults who were 45 years and older and were [Read more …]

No Picture
Aging & Health

Study: Five Servings of Fruits and Vegetables Per Day Reduces Risk of Death

March 4, 2021 Tim Aging & Health Comments Off on Study: Five Servings of Fruits and Vegetables Per Day Reduces Risk of Death
Disclosure: Links to other sites may be affiliate links that generate us a small commission at no extra cost to you.

A new research study released by the American Heart Association (AHA)[1] shows that five servings of fruits and vegetables are the number of servings you need to eat everyday to live the longest. According to the study, two of those five servings should be fruits, and the other three should be vegetables. “This amount likely offers the most benefit in terms of prevention of major chronic disease and is a relatively achievable intake for the general public,” said lead author Dr. Dong Wang, a nutritionist and epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. What was the Goal of the Research Study? However, there are variations in benefits depending on the fruits and vegetables you are [Read more …]

No Picture
Aging & Health

Research Study: Counter the Effects of Sitting with 11 Minutes of Exercise a Day?

December 18, 2020 VA Worker Aging & Health Comments Off on Research Study: Counter the Effects of Sitting with 11 Minutes of Exercise a Day?
Disclosure: Links to other sites may be affiliate links that generate us a small commission at no extra cost to you.

A new research study[1] shows that a mere 11 minutes a day of exercise could decrease the unwanted health consequences of sitting for several hours. Low levels of physical activity and high amounts of sedentary time are associated with higher morbidity and mortality risks. In contrast, other large-scale meta-analyses and cohort studies examining the joint associations between physical activity and sedentary behaviors suggest that high levels of physical activity attenuate or even eliminate the associations between sitting time all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. What was the Goal of the Research Study? Some older studies in 2016 suggested that if you do about 30 minutes of exercise most days but sit for eight hours at work a day, it is still [Read more …]