The brain, like muscles, malleable, plastic, can atrophy when it is not trained. Physical exercise is an antidepressant, anxiolytic and due to the release of endorphins that it produces, it raises self-esteem, well-being, positive thoughts and is a poly-pill that prevents many illnesses. Physical exercise causes the release of circulating insulin-like growth factor in the blood, which enters the brain to contribute to the production of new neurons in the hippocampus, necessary for new memories. Most of the circulating IGF is of hepatic origin and according to some studies, in the absence of physical activity, they die after about 21 days.
Muscles when exercised at moderate intensity produce irisinaa brain protection factor. This is why it improves memory and, by increasing oxygenation of brain tissue, results in greater mental agility and better balance. We have no doubt that it is the best anti-ageing pill. This is the deleterious effect of a sedentary lifestyle on people's intelligence. And the preventive effect against mental deterioration. Brain stimulation and its maintenance in humans would be achieved through various stimulating experiences: learning new things, studying, writing, human relations, emotional balance, sustained mental activity... We know the mechanisms by which exercise has a direct chemical action on the proliferation and survival of new neurons.
In studies with functional magnetic resonance imaging (RMF) changes in blood flow in the dentate gyrus have been observed during exercise. Recent research indicates that regular moderate exercise can improve the immune system. Several mechanisms contribute to this, such as an increase in the number and functionality of NK cells (natural killer lymphocytes), and in the number of dendritic cells, the backbone of our defences, as well as the anti-inflammatory effects of regular exercise. The NK cell (Natural Killer) is a lymphocyte and a component of the innate immune system for the body's defence. It is involved in the destruction of cells and cancer cells, as well as regulating immune responses. It shows how exercise prevents and cures.
There is also evidence of the relevant role played by the serotonin and learning and exercising the memory. And serotonin is produced during and after exercise, as well as in the good nutrition of our intestinal flora, which also produces it. Birds secrete serotonin before setting off on their migratory flights, which encourages them to form a group and set off on their journey. Antidepressants can increase the volume of the hippocampus, which decreases in sustained depression over time. Depression is related to inflammation of the hippocampus.
Damage due to atrophy caused by sedentary lifestyles, routine, the impoverished environment, so predominant, so promoted, and contrary to thought and the cultivation of the mind. A report has been presented in Spain by the Centre for Sports Studies of the Rey Juan Carlos University which concludes that physical inactivity is responsible for 13% of deaths. It takes 52,000 lives.
Again I have to mention the money we spend on traffic fatalities - much needed - but we do almost nothing about this problem. It is said that we will not be able to pay pensions in the future and we deny that we will not be able to treat the costs that obesity will cause either. Before we die, we spend many millions on treatment of diseases that cause such a life without exercise. According to forecasts, 80% of men will be obese in ten years' time and we will spend three billion on keeping them alive.
The role of vitamin D
Daily exercise improves lung function, oxygen-carrying efficiency of red blood cells, protects against all types of cancers. If we want to prevent vascular diseases and keep the heart in good condition, let us prescribe physical exercise, a Mediterranean diet and unprotected sun on the skin in the early morning or late afternoon, and the same for children. Ten minutes in the sun and if we can't, we should test our blood for vitamin D levels.
If we do not have an adequate level of it, in the first year of life, during pregnancy or breastfeeding, or from the age of 45, the body will activate the parathyroid glands which will extract calcium from our bones and in babies this will result in poor bone formation (osteomalacia) and in adults in osteoporosis, and its deficiency is related to inflammatory diseases. It acts on the immune system and on the proper functioning of our brain. Vitamin-hormone D can be obtained from fish, egg yolk, dairy products and under no circumstances from vegetable drinks, which have been foolishly imposed as substitutes for an essential food such as whole milk, which we need for its calcium content, without which vitamin D alone is useless. Daily physical exercise of moderate impact and strength is bone-building and activates the endocrine function of the muscles which, among other substances, release irisin as an anti-ageing, anti-cancer, anti-diabetes agent.
We are not shocked by the slow death that so many thousands of people are causing themselves because of this mentality of denying and not perceiving the damage we are doing to ourselves through sedentary lifestyles, poor diet or to our own planet, to our language with the foolish use of English, to our culture and our history, to our social health and to everything that fragments the cohesion that is so important at this moment in time.
*This article is part of my forthcoming book "The brain we have. The one we won't get very far with".
José Antonio Rodríguez Piedrabuena
Specialist in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. Specialist in management training, group and couple therapies.