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The Neuro Experience
The Science of Vigorous Activity: Why 30 Minutes of This Exercise Is Worth 4 Hours of Walking
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If you've been doing 30 minute leisurely walks five days a week thinking that you're covering your health basis, the data suggests that you actually need to walk for nearly four hours to get the same mortality benefits as 30 minutes of vigorous exercise. If you've been thinking vigorous exercise is completely out of reach for me, I want you to reconsider that. Because if you can walk up a flight of stairs at a pace that makes you slightly breathless, that counts. Vigorous intermittent life, Lifestyle, physical activity. These are short bursts of vigorous movement that happen throughout your day. They're not structured workouts. They're just moments of effort woven into daily life. And the findings are insane, ladies. Vigorous exercise can partially compensate for what estrogen was doing. It enhances glucose regulation, it reduces inflammation. Here's what really concerns me. I'm Louise Nicola and this is the Neuro Experience. Hey, everyone. Louise Nicola here. Welcome back to the Neuro Experience podcast. Today we're going to do a deep dive on a study that I genuinely believe is one of the most important pieces of exercise research to come out in years. And it was just published in Nature Communications and it's one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world.
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And this study, study is called wearable Device Based Health Equivalents of Different Physical Activity Intensities against mortality, Cardiometabolic disease and Cancer.
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The reason why I'm telling you all.
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Of this is because this study just came out and it's going viral all over social media.
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And I wanted to give you a.
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Breakdown on what does it mean for you? What does it mean as you are aging, and more importantly, what does it mean for, for your brain?
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Now, I know that was all of.
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A mouthful, everything I just said, but what it's really asking is a simple question. How much is vigorous exercise actually worth compared to gentle exercise when it comes to real health outcomes, not calories burned, not what we assumed, what actually happens to people over time. And what they found in this study is that we've been dramatically underestimating the value of vigorous exercise for over 40 years. The physical activity guidelines have always told us that one minute of hard exercise equals two minutes of moderate exercise. Well, this study, which tracked over 73,000 people using wearable devices for eight years, found the real number is closer to 4 to 1. And for some outcomes, like diabetes prevention, it's nearly 10 to 1. Now, you might have already seen this study floating around. It's been getting a lot of attention on social media. But here's what I've noticed. Everyone's talking about what this means for heart disease, what it means for diabetes, and that's great because that really matters. But nobody is connecting the dots to what it means for your brain. And that's my world. I'm a clinical neurophysiologist and Alzheimer's disease researcher, and I've spent over a decade studying how to protect the brain from cognitive decline. So in this episode, I'm going to break down exactly what this study found and why the old exercise guidelines were based on a flawed assumption that had nothing to do with actual health outcomes. I'm going to explain why every single thing this study measured. Cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic dysfunction, while these are all independent risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and what this means fundamentally for a brain health study, that no one is framing it that way.
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I'm also going to walk you guys through the specific mechanisms by which vigorous physical activity protects your brain in ways that gentle movement simply cannot. I'm going to also give you practical takeaways for what you're going to do with this information. And if you're a woman over 40, or if you're a woman 35 and up, this is even more important for you because the stakes are even higher. I've saved something at the end that I think is going to surprise you. It's about how little time you actually need to get these benefits. And I mean shockingly little. We're talking minutes per day, so make sure you stick around for that. By the end of this episode, you're going to understand why a 30 minute vigorous workout might be worth nearly four hours of gentle walking. And why your brain is the organ that benefits most from this new understanding and how to apply this to your own life. Starting today, let's talk about public health. For decades, the guidelines have told us 150 minutes to 300 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week. They said that that's what we needed for optimal health. Or if you prefer more vigorous exercise, the guideline said 75 minutes to 150 minutes instead. Now, the math has always been pretty simple. If you look at it. One minute of vigorous exercise equals 22 minutes of moderate exercise, the 1 to 2 ratio. But here's what most people don't realize. That ratio was never based on health outcomes. It wasn't based on whether people got heart disease or diabetes or cancer or dementia. It was based entirely on energy expenditure. Researchers calculated that vigorous exercise burns roughly twice as many calories as moderate exercise. So they assumed the health benefits would be twice as good. Now, that assumption Turns out to be wrong. Possibly very, very wrong. So this study that I mentioned earlier that was published in Nature Communications, where the researchers used data from over 73,000 adults in the UK Biobank aged 40 to 79. They tracked them for eight years. And this is where the study was really different. They didn't rely on people remembering how much they exercised, which humans are notoriously bad at. They used accelerometers, wearable devices that objectively measure every single movement that these people made every 10 seconds for a full week. So we're not dealing with like fuzzy self reported data, we're dealing with precise measurements, which is what I really, really love. And what they found challenges the foundational assumption behind our exercise guidelines. For all cause mortality, meaning your risk of dying from any cause. One minute of vigorous activity was equivalent to 4.3 minutes of moderate activity, not two minutes more than double what the guidelines suggest. For cardiovascular disease mortality, the ratio was even more striking. One minute of vigorous activity was equivalent to 7.8 minutes of moderate physical activity. That is nearly eight times more valuable.
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Than what we thought.
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And get this, for type 2 diabetes prevention, one minute of vigorous activity was equivalent to 9.4 minutes of moderate physical activity. And that's almost a 10 to 1 ratio for cancer mortality. One minute of vigorous activity equaled about 3.5 minutes of moderate activity. So let's translate this into practical terms for you guys. If you've been doing 30 minute leisurely walks five days a week thinking that you're covering your health basis, the data suggests that you actually need to walk for nearly four hours to get the same mortality benefits as 30 minutes of vigorous exercise. That's not a small difference in efficiency. That's a completely different understanding of how exercise affects our biology. I've done a podcast before and you can scroll through on. I was debunking zone two exercise and I got a lot of pushback on that on social media and through the newsletter and on the podcast because people were saying that, you know, but women need zone two exercise. And I'm all for zone two exercise if done after your vigorous activity. And so this is why this episode is so important. And here's actually where I need to bring all of this into my world, because this is the part that nobody's talking about. Every single health outcome measured in this study, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic dysfunction, these aren't just diseases that exist in isolation. They are all independent, well established risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline. I want to walk you through the connections Cardiovascular disease directly impacts your brain because your brain is extraordinarily dependent on blood flow. Your brain represents only 2% of your body weight, but it consumes around 20% of your oxygen and blood supply. I've said it before. Your brain is the most vascular, rich organ in the entire body. So when your cardiovascular system is comprised, your arteries are stiff or clogged or not functioning optimally. That means your brain doesn't get the oxygen and nutrients that it needs. And this leads to what we call vascular contributions to cognitive impairment. So when we damage the small vessels in our brain, this is what creates silent strokes that you might not even notice. And this is what accelerates the accumulation of Alzheimer's disease pathology. What's good for the heart is good for the brain. One of the biggest drivers of aging.
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Especially brain aging, is oxidative stress. And the body's main defense against that is glutathione, which is often called the master antioxidant. I'm such a huge fan of RO nutrition because they use liposomal delivery. This protects nutrients, so they're actually absorbed and used by your cells instead of being broken down in digestion. They have liposomal glutathione. And it's the one I recommend most often because when glutathione levels are strong, everything improves. Detox pathways, immune resilience, skin health, energy and cognitive function. And sometimes if you go and get tested, like a methylation test, you may find that you are not a good methylator of glutathione. I'm one of. That's why I have to supplement with glutathione. It's one of those supplements where you don't just read about the benefit, you actually feel it. So if you want to try it out or explore Ro's other liposomal formulas like NAD or Curcumin and Resveratrol, you can get 20% off with code Neuro, that is R H O-Nutrition.com Neuro for 20% off team.
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Something that shifted for me when I realized that you can't talk about longevity like real longevity if you're not talking about biomarkers. Yes, sleep matters. Yes, fitness matters. Yes, nutrition matters. But if you don't know what's happening internally, you're just hoping for the best. So I've started using Function Health. I love Function Health. This is where I get my blood work taken. And I love them because they have a phlebotomist who comes to my home, which is available in New York and in la. They come to My home, they draw my blood. It's a few vials of blood and then in three days I am able to see my results in their health tracking platform. And this is awesome, right? By the way, I do so many add ons. There's like 160 different biomarkers that you can choose from. They can do some add ons like for cancer protection, for Alzheimer's disease risk. It's so incredible. I'm actually getting it done very soon again. And I, I just wish that so many people were doing this. So if you guys haven't tried this out, if you haven't done any type of blood work, you need to just use promo code neuro25 at checkout when you go to functionhealth.com louisanicola that is neuro25 at signup.
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Now let's talk about type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. They also have a really strong connection to Alzheimer's disease. It's another independent risk factor for getting Alzheimer's disease. Now, I know that people have heard that Alzheimer's disease is type 3 diabetes, but we're a bit smarter than that. Let's talk about what that means. Right? When your cells become resistant to insulin, your brain cells struggle to take up glucose. And glucose is the primary fuel source for your brain. Your brain is an incredibly metabolically active organ. And when we can't efficiently use glucose, cognitive function suffers. This is actually what happens during the menopause transition. We actually get a reduction in brain glucose metabolism by around 20%. The same enzyme that breaks down insulin in your body is called insulin degrading enzyme. It also breaks down amyloid beta, which is the protein that forms plaques in Alzheimer's brains. So when you're insulin resistant and you have excess insulin circulating through your bloodstream, that enzyme is occupied, dealing with all the insulin, so it doesn't have the capacity to clear the amyloid beta efficiently. So that amyloid beta builds up in your brain, that's when plaques start to form and that's when we start to get the disease progression. So when this study shows that vigorous exercise is four to ten times more effective at preventing these conditions than what we previously understood, what I'm hearing as a brain researcher is that vigorous exercise is four to ten times more effective at protecting your brain than what we ever knew was possible. To me, this isn't just a heart health study. This isn't just a diabetes prevention study. This is fundamentally a brain health study that no one is framing that way. Let's talk about the mechanisms, because I think that understanding why vigorous exercise is so much more powerful for your brain will actually help you implement this, because I get it. It is so hard to get to 80 to 90% of your maximum heart rate. It's really hard for me, and I don't genuinely like it. I would love to just go around and do zone two all day, every day, because it's easy, right? Your brain doesn't have to think about it, but when I understand how beneficial it is, it makes me want to do it more. So let's talk about the first mechanism. And the first mechanism I want to talk about is sheer stress. When you exercise at higher intensities, your heart pumps faster and blood moves through your vessels at a higher velocity. And this creates friction against the walls of your arteries, including the arteries that supply blood to your brain. I know this sounds like a bad thing, but it's actually profoundly beneficial. So this shear stress signals to the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels to become more flexible, more resilient, and to release compounds like nitric oxide that improve blood flow and vascular function. This adaptation is intensity dependent, right? So you can't get the sheer stress or the sheer force of that blood pumping through light activity. It's not about duration. It's about strength of the signal. Think of it like the difference between a light breeze and a strong wind.
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A gentle breeze blowing for hours won't.
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Make a tree stronger, but exposure to strong winds causes the tree to develop a more robust root system and more resilient trunk. Your blood vessels work the same way. They need stronger mechanical signals to adapt. And when your blood vessels adapt and function better, you get improved cerebral blood flow. Okay? That is what's important. And by the way, if you actually have a look at the cancer mortality studies and exercise, it actually shows that this sheer stress can really eliminate and break down these circulating tumor cells that travel around and form metastases. But studies consistently show that people with reduced cerebral blood flow have faster rates of cognitive decline and higher risks of dementia. So this high impact exercise is so important. And this is why gentle walking may provide some benefits, but nowhere near the magnitude of this type of. Let's move on to my second mechanism, which is my favorite, my favorite. It involves lactate. So let's talk about what lactate is. When you exercise at high intensities, your muscles produce lactate. And most people think of lactate as a waste product. You know, we used to have this notion that when we used to work out hard and we get that burning sensation that you. That would be lactic acid building up, but it's not. And that myth has been debunked. Lactate is actually a signaling molecule and it functions almost like a hormone. And it's so remarkable because lactate crosses the blood brain barrier, so it literally enters the brain. This hormone enters the brain after it's made, and when it does, it triggers the production of bdnf, brain derived neurotrophic factor. And it's like this miracle grow for the brain, if you will, because it literally helps new brain cells grow, it helps new connections in the brain grow, it helps the existing neurons protect themselves from damage. And BDNF is one of the most powerful neuroprotective compounds your body can produce. So the key point here is that BDNF response is intensity dependent. So a casual walk may produce modest increases in bdnf, but a high intensity, vigorous exercise will produce a surge of it. And I think that that is really, really important because the biochemistry is completely different depending on how hard you push. Let's move on to the third mechanism, and that is muscle fiber recruitment. So you may have heard of these muscle fibers. We have different types of muscle fibers. We've got type one fibers, they're your slow twitch fibers, and they're used for low intensity activities. Then you've got type two, that's your fast twitch fibers. They are only recruited when you need more force or more speed. And that matters for your brain in two important ways. Because first of all, type 2 muscle fibers are the first to go as we age. So when you lose them, you lose power and the ability to generate force quickly. So that means that let's just say you're 80 years old and you trip and you go to catch yourself, but you can't because you're not as good effectively at doing that. This is when falls become more likely. And falls in older adults often lead to hip fractures, hospitalization and prolonged bed rest. This combination is one of the biggest triggers for rapid cognitive decline. We actually call it a catabolic crisis and it accelerates dementia progression by years. So type 2 muscle fibers, first thing to go as we age, we need them for many things to prevent us from falls. But also there is a really wonderful study that showed that the force, the leg force that you can produce in your muscles, in your leg muscles, actually correlate to a bigger brain. The second thing I want to tell you is that your muscles are actually endocrine organs. They don't just move your body. They release signaling molecules called myokines and when they contract, they release all of these myokines into the bloodstream. And type 2 fibers release specific signaling molecules that have been shown to cross the blood brain barrier and promote neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to adapt and form new connections. So the problem is that light activity doesn't recruit type 2 fibers, only more vigorous, purposeful movement does. So if all you're doing is gentle walking, you're missing out on an entire category of this muscle to brain signals that are important for cognitive health. Hey team, I want to talk to you about hydration.
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I read an incredible study. Women with just 1.36% dehydration experience substantial mood deterioration. Deterioration. They increase their anger and hostility by 8%, their fatigue by 17%, they reduce their vigor by 12%, mood disturbance goes up 19% and headaches double. So my question to you is, are you drinking enough water in your day? And if not, why? I used to be like this until I got an Aqua Trill. It's a countertop reverse osmosis purifier that removes 84 contaminants, including the ones you're free.
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Filter doesn't touch.
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With no installation and no hassle. And what has surprised me the most is the taste.
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So guys, I don't know.
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I was always chronically dehydrated and now that I have this filter, I am able to understand that all of the water I am drinking is not only pure, but it's helping me not ingest PFAs, heavy metals and microplastics. Because these things come from our taps and they come from bottled water. And they don't just affect our hormones, they're increasingly linked to cognitive decline. So if you haven't gotten yourself an Aqua True, if you haven't gotten yourself a reverse osmosis purifier, you need to check this one out. It is the best one on the market. Head to aquatru.com and you'll get 20% off your purifier. Just use code Neuro at checkout. Aqua True even comes with a 30 day best tasting water guarantee or your money back. Aquatrue.com code neuro.
- [23:26]
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When people ask me what is the.
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Secret to longevity, I always say, don't chase hacks, chase mitochondria. Because if your mitochondria aren't producing energy, well, everything declines. Your recovery, your brain health, your mood, your resilience. I'm doing everything I can to power the mitochondria in my body and in my brain. That's why I'm using mitopure from timeline. It's urolithin A, one of the few compounds clinically proven to support mitochondrial renewal. It helps your cells clear out damaged mitochondria and generate cleaner, more efficient energy. For me, it just feels like I've got steadier energy throughout the day, but I know that I am focusing on those little energy powerhouses in my brain.
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I need them.
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So if you're thinking long game with your brain and your body, this is worth exploring. You'll get 20% off your first order@timeline.com neuro 20% off your first order at timeline.com neuro the fourth mechanism I want.
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To talk to you about is really important for everyone. It's glucose regulation. This study in particular found that vigorous exercise was nearly 10 times more effective than moderate exercise for preventing type 2 diabetes. I've already explained the intimate connection between insulin resistance and Alzheimer's disease at a cellular level. When you exercise vigorously, your muscles need more fuel. So what they do is they pull all of the glucose out of the bloodstream using transporters called GLUT4Transporters. But here's what's important. These transporters don't just work during your workout. Once activated, they remain active for up to 24 hours afterwards. So you're not just improving blood sugar levels during an exercise session. You're improving glucose regulation throughout the entire day and night. I think that we can say that vigorous exercise triggers something called mitochondrial biogenesis, which is the growth of new mitochondria in your cells. The lactate produced during intense exercise through a protein called PGC1alpha, which is the master regulator of mitochondrial production, is what's responsible for this. And this matters for brain health, because mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the hallmarks of both aging and neurodegeneration. So when your mitochondria functions well, your cells, including your brain cells, can produce energy more efficiently and clear metabolic waste. When they don't, that's when the toxic proteins build up in the brain. And I know some of you are listening to this, thinking that vigorous exercise isn't realistic for you. Maybe you've got joint issues, or maybe you're just out of shape or you've got no time to exercise. I have very good news for you because this study is probably a lot less intense than you're imagining. Well, the exercise in it is. The researchers weren't talking about high intensity interval training where you're gasping for air with your heart rate at 90% of maximum. They defined vigorous activity as Purposeful movement where you're actually working, Running, yes, but also brisk walking or brisk. Also brisk cycling, playing actively with your grandchildren or your children, carrying groceries up a flight of stairs. Fast walking, where you're a little breathless but can still speak in short sentences. This is what exercise physiologists call zone two and above. So it's movement that feels like effort. Movement where you can tell that your body is doing something, not just going through the motions. And the study gave specific examples. Okay, so they said that light activity includes things like casual strolling, washing the dishes. Moderate activity is brisk walking, leisurely cycling or gardening, as my mother does. My mother always tells me every day I did the gardening today so I don't need to exercise. And it drives me insane. So I'm going to tell her that that is moderate activity. But vigorous activity as defined in this study included running, swimming, playing actively with your children, recreational sports and resistance training. So if you've been thinking vigorous exercise is completely out of reach for me, I want you to reconsider that. Because if you can walk up a flight of stairs at a pace that makes you slightly breathless, that counts. If you can do body squats, that counts. If you can play an active game with your grandkids or your kids, that counts. Okay, so now here's where it gets really interesting. The same research group behind this Nature Communication study has also published work on something called vilpa, which stands for vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity. These are short bursts of vigorous movement that happen throughout your day. They're not structured workouts. They're just moments of effort woven into daily life. And the findings are insane. One study of over 25,000 non exercisers, people who accumulated just three to four minutes of vigorous activity per day, three to four minutes broken into small bursts throughout the day, had a 40% reduction in all cause mortality and a 49% reduction in cardiovascular mortality compared to people who did no vigorous physical activity at all. And this study specifically was looking at women. Those who did just 3.4 minutes of these short vigorous bursts per day had a 45% lower risk of major cardiovascular events and a 67% lower risk of heart failure compared to women who did none. Let that sink in, ladies, because we already know that at the time of menopause, your risk of having a heart related event triples. So 3.4 minutes per day, that's sprinting to catch the bus, that's running up two flights of stairs quickly, that's doing a 60 second bout of air squats three times a day during your workday, you know that's all that you need. It's not crazy. The benefits of these short bursts were comparable to people doing structured exercise programs. Your body doesn't know, okay, or care whether you're in a gym. Let's just be clear with that. Your body doesn't care whether you're at Equinox or whether you're at home. You know, it doesn't know if it's running up the stairs in your office building. It just responds to the signal. The intensity is what matters, not the setting. Now remember what we've learned about health. Equivalence ratios. If three minutes of vigorous activity provides roughly the same Cardiovascular protection as 25 to 30 minutes of moderate activity and cardiovascular health directly impacts brain health, then these tiny bursts of effort throughout your day are protecting your brain in ways that hours of leisurely walking just cannot match. That's pretty liberating. You don't need a gym. You don't need a gym membership. You don't need to block out an hour in your calendar. You don't need special equipment or workout clothes. You need moments of purposeful effort scattered throughout your day.
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I am having electrolytes every single day and it's because even mild hydration can impair attention, memory and reaction time. I'm currently using cure hydration. It's a plant based electrolyte drink with no added sugar. Built on oral rehydration, hydration science. They use the same ratio used in.
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Medical settings because it actually helps water.
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Get into your cells. Guys, just because you're not training really, really hard and you're not sweating a whole bunch, it doesn't mean that you don't need electrolytes. Your brain, your brain cells literally use electrolytes to function and most people are depleted in electrolytes. So if you've been thinking, hey, what electrolytes are good, what is the best flavors, what are the, what's the cleanest products? It's cure hydration. Staying hydrated isn't just about water. You also need the electrolytes. My favorite flavor is by far watermelon. For my neuro experienced listeners. You get 20% off your first order at curehydration.com neuro with code neuro. You can check it out below in the show notes.
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I just want to take a moment to talk directly to women, especially as they're going through the perimenopausal transition because the stakes are even higher for you. Two out of three cases of Alzheimer's disease patients are women. Two out of three and for a long time, researchers assumed it was simply because women lived longer than men. But we know now that that's not the full story. There's a biological impedance and factor that happens that puts risk, that puts women at an elevated risk. The transition through perimenopause and menopause represents a critical vulnerability window for your brain. When estrogen levels decline, your brain loses one of its most powerful protective factors. Estrogen promotes cerebral blood flow. Estrogen supports glucose metabolism in the brain. Estrogen has anti inflammatory effects. Estrogen helps maintain the myelin sheath that insulates your neurons and allows them to communicate efficiently. So when estrogen declines, all of these protective mechanisms weaken simultaneously. And brain imaging studies show structural changes in women's brains during the menopausal transition. And this is precisely why exercise becomes more important, not less, during this life stage. Ladies, vigorous exercise can partially compensate for what estrogen was doing because it improves cerebral blood flow through different mechanisms. It enhances glucose regulation, it reduces inflammation, it triggers BDNF production. It's not a perfect replacement. No, but it's one of the most powerful tools that we have. Here's what really concerns me. If moderate exercise is 4 to 10 times less effective than what we thought, and women are already at an elevated risk of cognitive decline, then settling for leisurely walks is leaving massive neuroprotection on the table. I mean, have a look at the study. The participants in the study ranged from age 40 to 79, and that's the exact demographic that we're talking about here. And the benefits of vigorous exercise were clear and consistent across the entire age range. So it's not too late to start, but you actually have to do it. And before anyone tells you that women shouldn't be doing vigorous activity because of cortisol and hormonal disruptions or whatever you might have read on social media, I want to be really clear. The research does not support that claim. Women can absolutely do vigorous exercise safely and effectively. You might need to adjust intensity, you know, depending on if you've got a sore hip or a sore knee or maybe you're injured, but you should always listen to your body. The idea that women should avoid intensity and only do gentle movement is not evidence based. And frankly, it's keeping women from the most protective form of exercise available to them. All right, so let's end with protocols. Okay? What should you actually do with all the information that I've just given you? The first thing you need to do is you need to shift your mindset from counting minutes and Steps to considering effort and intensity. The data is clear that these metrics are not equivalent. 10,000 steps of gentle strolling is not providing the same benefits as 5,000 steps that include some hills, some stairs, and some periods of actually moving with purpose. So start paying attention to how hard you're working, not just how long. Second thing I want you to do, I want you to look for opportunities. Opportunities to inject short bursts of vigorous activity throughout your day. These don't need to be structured workouts like literally, take the stairs. I took the stairs this morning. I'm on level nine in the podcast studio. I took the stairs this morning instead of taking the elevator. Do 60 minutes of air squats if you want, or jumping jacks. Just try and inject it wherever you can throughout the day. This is also called exercise snacks, if you will. You know, just getting up off your desk and maybe running really hard on the on the spot for 60 seconds to two minutes. The third thing is if you're able to aim for one to two sessions per week of sustained, vigorous exercise lasting 20 to 30 minutes, this could be a run. I do it on a StairMaster. It could be a bike ride, a hike, a strength training session that keeps your heart rate elevated, or even do a Fitness Class Zone 2 and above. Sustained effort, giving your cardiovascular system and your brain the strong signal they need to adapt, will be so key here. The fourth thing to remember is if you're currently set, entry or deconditioned, start small and build progressively. This isn't all or nothing. You can begin these short bursts by doing 20 seconds of effort and then 20 seconds of rest. 20 seconds on, 20 seconds off. What feels vigorous and challenging today will be easier in a few weeks, at which point you can increase the intensity or duration. I really want you to make sure that you think of exercise as a healthy thing. Think of it as a brain thing. Think of exercise. You think of going to the gym or doing exercise as a brain activity because every time you push yourself physically, you're making a deposit into your cognitive bank account. You're building cerebral blood flow, you're triggering BDNF release, you're improving metabolic health, you're reducing inflammation, you're protecting yourself against the conditions that lead to dementia. Your workout isn't just about your muscles or your waistline. It's about your brain 20 and 30 years from now. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If I can inspire you to go out and do these exercise snacks, they will make absolutely dividends in your cognitive bank throughout the future. I'm Louisa Nicola, and this is the Neuro Experience podcast.
- [38:35]
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