The regular physical exerciseIn addition to keeping physically and mentally active people physically and mentally younger and longer-lived, it improves cognitive performance and vitality.
We know that the holidays increase dopamine and serotonin levels, which are essential for motivation, well-being and sleep. But, once the holiday season is over, let's put the holiday slump behind us and apply again the discipline required for better livingWe will live longer, with better brains, well-being and health. Likewise, it is time to resume the consumption of fruit, fibre, nuts and pulses, all of which will produce wellbeing thanks to the improvement of the intestinal flora. But there is much more, because exercise increases synaptic plasticity and the formation of new neurons in those regions where they naturally form and mature. The brain, like the muscles, is maintained by the physical exercise of memory, human relations or stimuli for the five senses..
Also we will find ourselves with a better brain because exercise increases its blood flow.This means a greater supply of nutrients, increased functionality and availability of neurotransmitters for overall functioning and, finally, induces neuroprotection in all areas of the brain. All of which enhances, stimulates and creates new teethThese little buttons are the gateway to information coming from other neurons. Their reduction is a symptom of deterioration.
The brain needs to be activated to feel powerful. That's why we come back from our days off with less brain power, which in turn leads to listlessness. On holidays there is a general break from meditation, from professional work, and we don't get as much exercise as our brain needs. The secret to overcoming all this loss is exercise and nutrition, as well as reactivating social contacts. As a key to health and longevity, we must be aware that daily exercise produces new mitochondria and activates the function of existing mitochondria, which means we feel more energetic. The decline in their functions and numbers is one of the causes of old age, asthenia and frailty..
With sedentary life, the maturation of new neurons in the hippocampus, the main seat of memory, will decrease, as will levels of neurotransmitters, growth factors and decreased dendritic arborisation of neurons and angiogenesis. Lack of activity causes deterioration of the body as a whole. Physical exercise also regulates within the brain levels of adrenaline/noradrenaline, acetylcholine and glutamate/GABA, which move us towards excitement or calm. It is sedative and activates beta-endorphins, enkephalins and dynorphins that mediate the pleasurable effects of well-being. It increases the activity of antioxidant enzymes and metabolic and cellular adjustments. Produces an increase in grey matter volume, mainly in the brain regions of striatum, hippocampus and cortex. Brain survival depends on exercise.
We also provides greater cognitive flexibility and executive controlThe result of better functioning of the prefrontal cortex. We see everything more clearly, the excitement disappears, we are calmer to make decisions. All this allows us to make flexible decisions, as well as verbal fluency and mental speed, or the production of neurotrophic factors, which nourish the nervous system and increase mitochondrial energy functionality; while decreasing the production of free radicals from oxidative stress and brain inflammation.
The benefits don't just stay in the brainThe exercise will produce a significant reduction in the risk of metabolic diseases, both through direct action on skeletal muscle which, through the production of various myokines including irisin, will activate actions on the liver, adipose tissue, vasculature and pancreas.
Irisin produced by the muscle as an endocrine organ strengthens skeletal muscleswhich begins to decline unnoticed from the age of 26, and strengthens the heart muscles and bone calcification. Irisin production also blocks many aspects that cause dementia and other brain diseases. It is the best anti-inflammatory treatment for the skeleton. As well as preventing osteoporosis, it helps to slow down cancer cells and increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy. In fact, it is like a hormone that affects the whole organismincluding telomeres, so that those of us who are physically fit live longer. The benefits are extended to the liver, lowering high-density cholesterol, which the festive excesses will have increased, and a mobilisation of the deposits of lipid molecules that we have accumulated. It therefore resets the entire metabolic and hormonal system that in many cases we have altered.
In a nutshell, exercise, provided it is moderate, modifies part of the multiple molecular mechanisms of brain ageing and pro-cognitive mechanisms.. Produces greater cardiorespiratory and cerebrovascular efficiency and capacity. Increases life expectancy and decreases disease and some cancers.
*José Antonio Rodríguez Piedrabuena is a specialist in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, and in management training, group and couple therapies.