B (3:05)

Plus you probably have a little, little bit of it left. You could probably relearn pieces faster than somebody that never practiced for those years.

A (3:14)

But.

B (3:14)

But no, it doesn't last for a lifetime. You can't kind of take one summer and say, okay, here's the exercise I'm gonna do for the rest of my life and it's gonna last. It really does have to be a regular habit that you form.

A (3:27)

I had a terrible feeling you were gonna say it's a bit like exercise and good food. Right. I can't just eat really well last decade and then like now just have ice cream and burgers.

B (3:34)

Sadly, sadly, no.

A (3:36)

So other than playing music really well every day for the rest of my life, is there anything else that can help to improve this brain health?

B (3:46)

Absolutely. So many different things. I'm gonna start with my favorite, which is moving your body. Physical activity is so powerful. As I said, my most amazing thing is moving your body is the most transformative thing that you can do for your brain. And I think people realize that moving your body is great for your heart and cardiovascular and your muscles, but they don't realize that in this sense your brain kind of like, it acts kind of like a muscle. And what is happening is different from when you're using weights or running for your muscles. What happens is every single time you move your body, there is a rush of neurochemicals that gets released in your brain. And those neurochemicals is the secret for why exercise is so transformative. Let's go for the immediate benefits that happen with this rush of neurochemicals. You get dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline, endorphins released with exercise. And I'm not talking about marathon running. I'm talking about a power walk, a 10 minute walk that you can take at lunch. Walk up and down the stairs during your day that can lead to this rush of neurochemicals that I like to call a bubble bath of neurochemicals that happens every time you move your body. And that's gonna lead to an immediate mood boost. Now is that gonna change your mood for the rest of your life? No. The duration of that mood boost is going to depend on how long, how hard you worked out. And there's a bell shaped curve there. But that's not all you get. Moving your body also improves the function of your prefrontal cortex, the one right behind your forehead, really critical for your ability to shift and focus attention. You and I, as a podcaster and as a teacher, need our prefrontal cortex to remember questions that were asked and the questions we wanna bring up critical. And that single bout of exercise can help with the functioning of that prefrontal cortex. And the third thing you get is reaction time. So your ability to respond to a question is faster after a single workout than if you didn't work out at all. And this is all having to do with that bubble bath that you're giving your brain. But the most transformative thing happens when you don't just do a one off of exercise. I'm just gonna try it once. Okay, I did it. I got the bubble bath. You know, give me all the benefits. You get a short term benefit with a single exercise bout. Let's say you include more exercise in your life, which I call long term exercise, and you do that on a regular basis. That means your brain is getting more of a bubble bath. And here I'm gonna add one other element to that bubble bath that gets released every time, which is a growth factor called bdnf, or brain derived neurotrophic factor. This goes to my favorite structure in the brain, the hippocampus. And it actually helps the hippocampus grow brand new brain cells. So I like to say regular exercise is going to make your hippocampus big and fat and fluffy, and that is what you want. You want the biggest, fattest, fluffiest hippocampus that you can have. It's also actually changing the size of the prefrontal cortex, not because of new cells, but because of new synapses. And so that is the transformation.

A (7:14)

That all sounds pretty amazing. And if I just caught that bit at the end, what you're saying is that although you said at the beginning that maybe our brain overall doesn't grow, you're saying that this particular part, which is your favorite part of the brain. I never had a favorite part of the brain before, but I like that you have. A favorite part of the brain actually grows as you are doing this exercise on a regular basis.

B (7:37)

Yes, it does. And also, even if you don't do any exercise, every one of us has a little bit of. It's called neurogenesis, the birth of brand new brain cells in our hippocampus. But with exercise, I like to think of the image of a watering can of growth factor that goes up and down the hippocampus every time I'm working out. This is my nerdy motivation to work out in the morning is I want that a watering can of growth factor going into my hippocampus and growing as many brand new brain cells cause those brain cells means my memory is going to be better and my hippocampus is going to be bigger and fatter and fluffier.

A (8:16)

So somebody's listening. They're completely sold on exercise. What can they do? And do they have to become a marathon runner?

B (8:24)

Yeah, yeah. So first you don't have to become a marathon runner. Walking, slash power walking works just fine for mood. That immediate mood benefit that we talked about after a single workout, just walking for 10 minutes, getting outside, walking for 10 minutes. I think so many of your listeners will have experienced that already. But the key for getting those long term changes, especially the big fat, fluffy hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, is doing anything with your body that increases your heart rate. That's called aerobic activity. Let me emphasize again, power walking will get your heart rate up. And I like to say that even if you haven't started, it's not part of your regimen. It actually is faster to get your heart rate up when you're just starting out than if you have a regular exercise regimen. It's like, oh, I have to get into there for at least 30 minutes before my heart rate gets up. So all the beginners have a little advantage there. But, but every moment that you get that heart rate up for whatever you do, including fun things like dancing, gardening, walking around a museum, there's so many creative ways that you can do this. That is what's going to give you that big fat, fluffy hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and beautiful brain.

A (9:45)

And is it more important therefore to be doing faster steps than to be doing more steps?

B (9:51)

As I listen to that, that's a great question. I would say that those that are doing lots of steps, maybe at a lower aerobic activity, can put on their to do list, add more fast steps into that, and those that are doing small numbers of steps that maybe have higher aerobic activity. I like to say every step counts, every step counts. So don't People come up to me all the time. I go, all I do is walk. I'm like, that is great. Celebrate that people don't realize that walking to the store, walking from your car to the store and walking around a shopping mall, all of that counts too. So just to get, try and get more. And I think the secret is not just more make it fun. Because if it's not fun and enjoyable. You're not gonna do it.

A (10:42)

That's fascinating. What sort of exercise target should someone be thinking about? And I'm sure you're saying it's different based upon their starting point, but like, how often a week, like how much time do people need to devote? Cause I think sometimes you listen to things on the Internet. It's like, well, if you're not doing three hours of crazy exercise, none of this matters. Is that the reality for your brain?

B (11:06)

No, it's not. And I can be very specific because one of my goals over the last 10 years has been to try and head towards a prescription and of exercise. Like, people wanna know exactly how much. So I'm gonna start with a study we did in people that were not exercising so much less than 20 minutes a week for the last three months. 20 minutes of exercise per week. And what we showed is in those people that three times a week, aerobic exercise, 45 minutes each. There's the specificity. Got them. Baseline mood changes, improved prefrontal function and improved hippocampal function. Three months of that.

A (11:49)

And say again, how much was the exercise they were having to do?

B (11:51)

Three times. Actually, what they ended up doing was between two and three times a week. I think it was 2.6 times a week on average. This group did 45 minutes each of a. It happened to be a spin class, so we chose a class where clearly the goal was aerobic activity. So that got these brain plasticity changes. That was. We were thrilled with that. And then I have one more piece of data to give you, which is what about mid fit people that are exercising maybe two on average, two times a week. But a good, you know, spin class or run or something like that. What about them? Well, we did a study in that population and we said, okay, exercise as much as you want. For the next three months, we're gonna give you free workouts again at a spin studio. And we had people that went seven days a week for a 45 minute class. And those that stayed at two to three times. Yeah, two times a week. What we found is every rotation of the wheel helped. The more you worked out at this mid fit level, the more benefit you got in all of these things. In mood, in focus, and in memory. I like to say every step, every drop of sweat counts. Whether you're just starting out, you're in the middle, and, you know, Olympic athletes. I would love to do a study on you because I know what the outcome is and I would love to show that. But Most of us are not Olympic athletes, which is why I started with the lower fit people and the people exercising twice a week.

A (13:28)

As you can imagine hosting this podcast, running Zoe, juggling family life, it all keeps me pretty busy. So I try as best I can to stay energized and show up well in all those parts of my life by fueling my body with the right food, by exercising, and by adding a scoop of daily 30 to my meals every day. If you haven't heard of Daily 30 yet, it's the gut supplement designed by our gut health scientists here at Zoe. It's made of over 30 high quality hand picked plants including seaweed, fungi and different types of fiber. Better yet, it contains ingredients that support gut health, digestion and energy, which is ideal for packed calendars and busy lives. Simply add one scoop a day to any meal for an extra boost of fibre and plant diversity. And because it tastes delicious on just about anything and adds a satisfying crunch, it quite quickly slots into your life, becoming a daily healthy habit you you'll always have time for. By the way, whenever we talk about Daily 30 as a good source of fiber, we're required to say that it contains 4 grams of total fat per serving. Obviously that's all amazing healthy fats from plants, so order yours today@zoe.com daily30. Thanks for listening and see you next time.