← Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning
Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning
How Exercise Primes the Brain: Insights from Dr. John Ratey
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Welcome Back to season 14 of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast where we connect the science based evidence behind social and emotional learning and emotional intelligence training for improved well being, achievement, productivity and results using what I saw as the missing link since we weren't taught this when we were growing up in school, the Application Practical Neuroscience I'm Andrea Samadhi and seven years ago launched this podcast with a question that I've never truly asked myself before and that is if productivity and results matter to us, and they do now more than ever, how exactly are we using our brain to make them happen? And most of us were never taught how to apply neuroscience to improve productivity, our results or our well being. About a decade ago I became fascinated by the Mind Brain results connection and how science can be applied to our everyday lives. And that's why I've made it my mission to bring you the world's top experts so together we can explore the intersection of science and social and emotional learning. We'll break down complex ideas and turn them into practical strategies we can use for predictable science backed results. And as we kick off season 14, I've been revisiting past episodes and reflecting on the incredible insights that our guests shared since we first launched in 2019. So as we dive into this review of our past conversations, know that this review isn't just for you, it's for me as well. I've learned that slowing down helps us to uncover even more wisdom and I'm excited for us to walk this path together. For Today's episode number 375, we continue with our review of past episodes as we make connections to prior learning with whatever it is that we're currently working on this year. I'll create a roadmap at the end of this season so this pathway will make sense to us. I hope as we piece together important parts of our success puzzle and begin to bring them to life. You'll notice that around the time of the pandemic in 2020, our interviews took a turn towards health and wellness. And to stay on track, I created a framework on our top five health staples on episode 87, which eventually evolved into our top six health staples. Today, we're covering the first health staple of exercise, jumping to episode 116 on the Revolutionary new Science of Exercise and the Brain with bestselling author Dr. John Ratey. Dr. Rady is also an Associate Clinical professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and an internationally recognized expert in neuropsychiatry. Dr. Rady has published over 60 peer review articles and 11 books in 17 languages, including his groundbreaking ADHD Driven to Distraction series with Dr. Ed Holliwell. And with the publication of his book the Revolutionary New Science of Exercise in the brain, Dr. Rady established himself as one of the world's foremost authorities on the brain fitness connection. His most recent book, Go Wild, explores how we can achieve optimal physical and mental health by getting in touch with our caveman roots and how we can rewild our lives. And I did put a link in the show Notes so you can tune in to episode 87 on those top five brain health tips, as well as a link to Dr. John Ratey's website. We also did a deep dive into Dr. Rady's books on episode 118, and you can listen to that as well by clicking on the link in the show notes. Now moving on to our first clip with Dr. Rady, it's on the power of exercise to prime the brain for learning. In our first video clip reviewing our interview with Dr. Rady, he talks about the power of exercise to prime our brain for learning.
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He says, you're going to pay better attention if you exercise, you know, because you turn on all the thinking parts of the brain when you move, you're turning on those thinking nerve cells, if you want to put it like that, and especially your attention system, and that is, allows you to stay with it, to stay with an idea, to evaluate, to understand, to use your ideas, to scan your memory banks, if you will, and also to keep in your seat where you're trying to parse through stuff that David Perlmutter wrote. You know, I mean, to try to understand that you, you need to, you need to have the, the sitting power and also the attention to go with it so that you can understand things. And so.
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And it was right here that I understood why I couldn't make connections with difficult material without exercising first. I've mentioned it often on past episodes that exercise has to come before a difficult day for me or I know I won't be putting my best foot forward. This practice gives me the capacity to handle life's daily stressors. And I didn't need to read Dr. Rady's book Spark to know this. It's just always been that way for me. Then I learned about his research and how he used this connection between exercise and learning with a school in Chicago called Naperville, which provides a powerful study showing how aerobic activity can transform not only the body, but also the mind. A key takeaway from Dr. Rady's book Spark is the impact of physical activity on not only our ability to focus on difficult work, like I noticed, but his research showed the direct impact on academic achievement in the classroom. Dr. John Rady wrote the book spark after he saw Naperville's results in in the trends in international mathematics and science study. And that's tim SS where the school ranked number one in science and number six in math in the world. This success proved that Naperville had discovered something remarkable. The strong correlation between exercise and academic achievement. Naperville provided a powerful case study demonstrating that aerobic activity can transform not only the body, but also the mind. And what was being taught at Naperville that was so unique Was not just a PE class, it was a lifestyle. They emphasized fitness instead of sports through a program they called zero hour PE, which was supported by emerging research showing that physical activity sparks biological changes that encourage brain cells to bind to one another. For the brain to learn, these connections must be made, and they reflect the brain's fundamental ability to adapt to challenges. The more neuroscientists discover about this process, the clearer it becomes that exercise provides an unparalleled stimulus, Creating an environment in which the brain is ready, willing, and able to learn. And what I loved about what they discovered at Naperville with their zero hour PE program, which prepared students to learn through vigorous exercise, Was that they created lifelong habits around using exercise as a stress management tool throughout college and beyond. A habit that I've personally adopted as my number one stress management tool. Now we can go back and look at our past episodes where we covered this important health staple, Uncovering that exercise seems to be the solution for every single brain problem. I think this is one of the most important staples Next to sleep. And the reason why I try to make it as non negotiable. If we can incorporate even 30 minutes of brisk walking every day, we'll be miles ahead with our brain health. And it wasn't until I started to measure my activity that I started to see that 30 minutes of walking really did make a difference. It didn't need to be running or working really hard like I used to think I had to do to notice a difference. But I did need to put in some effort to move the needle. And the benefits of daily consistent exercise come directly from its ability to reduce insulin resistance, reduce inflammation, and stimulate the release of growth factors, Chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells. And if for some reason, this whole idea of exercising still doesn't sound the least bit interesting to you? You might be surprised, like I was, that household activities like vacuuming or raking leaves or anything that gets your heart rate up, like shoveling snow, could also fall into the category of moderate exercise. The idea is that whatever you choose that it remains consistent so it eventually becomes something you do habitually. I was actually shocked to see that while recording these podcast episodes, my heart rate jumped up much higher than my typical resting heart rate. I'm currently watching it and it's in zone one showing me that improving my heart muscle can come in many different forms. Now Dr. Rady mentioned board certified neurologist, researcher and New York times bestselling author Dr. David Perlmutter, who wrote the forward to his book Go Wild in this first interview clip Dr. Perlmutter, who created an important documentary called the Science of prevention series in 2020 a test that if exercise reduces insulin resistance and inflammation, it would make sense that it also reduces the risk of Alzheimer's. Studies show that people who are physically active have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and possibly have improved thinking so some practical tips for implementing physical activity into your life Whether you're an educator working in a classroom or an employee in the corporate world, this concept can be easily implemented to help you to reach a state of heightened awareness before learning or before sitting to work for long periods of time. Now we interviewed Paul Zentarski, who worked closely with Naperville Study through his work in PE at the high school level, and he has clear and practical ideas on how to implement a program like Naperville's through his Learning Readiness PE program for schools. And after seeing these results that we innately know are true, I would highly encourage us all to think of ways to encourage our students and our employees and ourselves to engage in aerobic activity before starting the day. Consider how you might integrate a movement based program before class or work begins to boost focus, memory and performance. I know that some days this just isn't possible. Our schedules are tight and time sometimes just doesn't allow for this. But if we could find a way to start most days with movement, we will all notice the benefits. And it's clear from Dr. Rady's research that aerobic activity has a dramatic effect on adaptation, regulating systems that might be out of balance and optimizing those that are not. It's an indispensable tool for anyone looking to improve learning, focus and well being. Which brings us to video clip number two where I asked Dr. Rady how does Nutrition and what we eat have such an impact on bdnf, brain derived neurotropic factor, that protein that's crucial for the survival, growth and maintenance of neurons, particularly in the areas of the brain involved with learning, memory and emotion. And Dr. Rady answered, how does nutrition or what we're choosing to eat have such a profound effect on BDNF and be so important for our brain health?
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Well, because it really does impact the development of our brain and the feeding of our brain. What we do know, the offset of that is high glucose levels. They are seen as toxic to the brain so that it, it really can injure our brain. And so, and a big thing that it does is suppresses the production of high glucose levels will limit the production of this glorious compound, bdnf, which is really the master switch in terms of learning and healthy brain development. We now see it as an antidepressant, an antianxiety agent.
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After this interview, I wanted to understand more about what BDNF actually was, especially when Dr. Rady described it as miracle grow for the brain. He emphasized its importance for brain health, learning, physical and emotional well being. So I dove deeper into this topic on episode 114, building a stronger, faster, more resilient brain by understanding BDNF. And on that episode, we learned that what we eat is not the only way to impact this important brain protein. We covered what actually is bdnf, Brain derived neurotropic factor. It's a protein found in the brain and body that supports plastic changes related to learning, memory and higher level cognitive abilities. In the same signaling protein is the reason you can sit at your desk with a heightened sense of focus after you exercise. As Dr. Rady taught me, movement places demands on the brain just as it does on the muscle. And so the brain releases bdnf, which triggers the growth of cells to meet the increased mental demands of movement. In short, the whole brain benefits from movement. Then we looked at the benefits of BDNF with movement and the increase of this protein. BDNF supports learning, memory and higher level thinking. It grows new neurons and synapses while supporting existing ones. And it increases neurogenesis, the process of creating new neurons and helps the brain to heal after injury. And what else should we know about bdnf? BDNF is reduced in the brains of people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, explaining memory decline and cognitive impairment. It influences how quickly we learn. Children have higher BDNF and greater neuroplasticity which is why learning a second language or a new skill is easier when we're young. So some practical tips to increase BDNF Building a stronger, faster, more resilient brain tip number one, exercise and nutrition in Go Wild, Dr. Rady explains that researchers studying aging found that seniors who exercised had significantly larger hippocampal volumes, improving memory and preventing loss of gray matter. This research shows that exercise and nutrition are essential for maintaining cognitive health at any age, another reason they're at the core of our top six health staples. Dr. Rady reminded us in clip two that high glucose levels are toxic to the brain and too much glucose can injure our brain. A second tip to increase BDNF is through hormesis or or putting the body under stress. Fitness expert Thomas DeLauer explains that fasting and the ketogenic diet can also boost bdnf. Whenever we put our body under stress, through fasting, intense exercise, or even exposure to heat in a sauna, BDNF levels increase. And this process, called hormesis, means that mild stress actually strengthens the body and the brain, improving resilience and resistance to disease. And our third tip to increase BDNF is through controlling stress and improving sleep. Getting enough sleep and experts still say around seven to eight hours, is one of our top five health staples. And research links poor sleep, obesity and insulin resistance to lower BDNF levels, the same conditions Dr. Perlmutter connects to Alzheimer's disease. And if you're not getting enough sleep or you're living under chronic stress, it will show up in your brain and your BDNF levels. Remember, that which does not kill us makes us stronger. That's from Nietzsche. Our bodies and brains are designed to release the chemicals that keep us healthy, but we must create the right environment for that to happen. And this conversation brings us full circle to the top five now six health staples that we've discussed throughout this entire podcast. It's a powerful reminder of why putting our health and wellbeing first isn't optional. Our lives literally depend on it. Now, as we wrap up episode 375, our review of episode 116 with Dr. John Ratey, we cover two important clips that highlight how movement, nutrition and lifestyle choices directly shape our brain's performance and overall well being. In clip number one, we looked at how exercise keeps our attention. Dr. Rady's research shows that exercise primes the brain for learning, improving attention, focus and mental endurance. Aerobic movement activates our thinking centers and enhances our ability to process and retain complex information Some practical tips for Increasing Exercise in our Daily Life Number one, Whether you're a teacher in the classroom or an employee in a corporate environment, build movement into your day. Even brief aerobic bursts can help the brain stay focused and alert. And number two, remember the example from Naperville's zero hour PE program, Exercise before learning or work can boost academic and professional performance. In our clip number two Building a faster, stronger, more resilient brain. In this clip, Dr. Rady explains how nutrition, exercise, hormesis, stress reduction and quality sleep all influence levels of BDNF brain derived neurotropic factor, what he calls miracle grow for the brain. Some practical tips for increasing BDNF first, nutrition and exercise prioritize whole low glucose foods and regular physical activity to enhance brain growth and protect against decline 2 induce mild stressors like fasting, intense workouts or sauna sessions to boost resilience and upregulate BDNF and 3 through stress control and quality sleep, manage stress effectively and aim for seven to eight hours of restorative sleep to maintain optimal brain function and mood stability. And as we now move from our mind to our brain to our body in this roadmap for health and wellness, our I hope you've enjoyed this quick review of the importance of exercise and nutrition in building a stronger, more resilient brain. And as we focus on finishing the last quarter of 2025, let's all continue to put these practices into action, fueling both our mental clarity and our physical vitality as we move forward together on this path toward optimal health and well being. And with that, we'll close out this episode. I hope you join me next week for part two of our review with Dr. Rady where we dive a bit deeper into his work focused on anti aging and healthy living. We'll see you next week.
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