Most of us are nutrition and supplement obsessed when it comes to increasing cognitive health, although exercise is at the top of the list for preventing cognitive decline, yet it's the least utilized. In this episode, guest Ryan Glatt breaks down how we can properly use exercise as a means to boost our brain health.
Ryan also does a deep dive into what the heck the brain is in the first place, how it is deeply interconnected to the rest of the systems throughout your body, how exercise affects it, how to prevent cognitive decline and depression, and many other fascinating topics in relation to neuroscience.
Ryan Glatt is a psychometrist and Brain Health Coach at the Brain Health Center in the Pacific Neuroscience Institute. With a strong background in exercise science and human health, Ryan develops curricula specifically targeted towards developing optimal brain health.
Ryan is an amazing friend with a similar background, which means we get pretty silly.
What we discuss:
3:30 - What is the brain?
4:30 - How movement affects the brain
8:00 - Micro, Macro and Behavioral effects
9:30 - The effects of exercise duration, intensity, and modality
11:40 - Bloodflow, angiogenesis, BDNF
15:00 - Forced exercise vs. voluntarily exercise
18:00 - Nutrition and cognitive health
21:50 - Skill-based exercise
23:15 - Why not all exercise should be cognitive demanding
26:00 - Motor units within the muscles
33:45 - How movement modifies our expression and personality
35:15 - How movement affects your thoughts and feelings
39:00 - The impact of facial gestures
44:20 - Task initiation and executive functioning
47:00 - How exercise affects learning
49:50 - Cortisol-sensitive areas of the brain
50:40 - How HITT brings down inflammatory bio-markers
54:00 - Why adaptation is the key
56:40 - Why you need to do more of what you're not doing
01:06:00 - Nature therapy
01:12:45 - Manipulating the brain with movement
01:13:00 - Depression and inflammation in the brain vs. dopamine hypothesis