Exercise for the Aging Brain

from Personal Fitness Professional, by Cody Sipe 

Dementia is one of, if not the greatest concern among older adults, and with the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease on the rise, it is a valid one. It is anticipated that the worldwide cases of Alzheimer’s disease will increase from 46.8 million in 2015 to 131.5 million in 2050 (World Alzheimer’s Report 2015). Most, if not all, older adults would rather die earlier than live an extra 5-10 years unable to recognize their loved ones and having to be taken care of. This fear has helped create a global business sector centered on “brain training” apps, software, games… even Sudoku and crossword puzzles. But do they work? And can exercise be used as an effective intervention to improve cognitive function?

The research overwhelmingly suggests that cognitive function in old age is primarily due to lifestyle factors rather than the aging process. Nutrition, stress, environment, physical activity, relationships and other factors have an impact on cognition as we get older. Risk factors for cognitive decline include age, genetics, insulin resistance/diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, smoking and amyloid plaques (Baumgart et al 2016). Although some individuals will suffer from memory loss or even develop dementia, these are not normal parts of the aging process as many older adults remain mentally sharp throughout their whole life.

Most studies assessing the effects of cognitive task training have used computerized brain training software (games). The data indicates that computerized cognitive training improves certain cognitive domains a small to moderate degree with no significant effects in executive functions. It is also clear that only the trained cognitive process improves with no transfer effects, meaning that other related cognitive processes do not improve (Ballesteros et al 2015). The largest cognitive study to date, the ACTIVE study, assigned people to one of three cognitive training groups: memory; speed of process; or reasoning. In all three groups the skill that was trained significantly improved with no transfer to untrained functions or to everyday activities.

Exercise has been identified as one of the best ways to improve cognitive function and is probably better than playing any of the brain games that have become so popular. Several recent systematic reviews (Bamidis et al 2014; Ballesteros et al 2015; Hotting et al 2013; Szuhany et al 2015) have investigated the relationship of exercise to cognition and have made the following conclusions:

1). Resistance exercise stimulates the production of Immuno-Globulin Factor 1 (IGF1).

2). Cardiovascular and resistance exercise improve executive function the most (strategic planning, mental flexibility, inhibitory control, problem solving and working memory).

3). Cardiovascular exercise of sufficient intensity (60-75% max heart rate) and frequency can significantly elevate brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

4). Low BDNF levels are linked to Alzheimer’s disease, accelerated aging, obesity and depression.

5). Cardiovascular and resistance exercise have a synergistic effect on brain function likely due to stimulating the brain via different pathways (BDNF and IGF1) and maximizing neurogenesis, synaptogenesis and angiogenesis.

6). Computer based-brain games can improve the functions of the brain used during training tasks, but there is no carryover effect to other cognitive functions.

7). The “sweet spot” where the best outcomes occur seems to be activities that combine physical exertion with mental challenge, such as learning a new sport.

8). The research confirms that physical activity and exercise are keys to maintaining high levels of cognition and reduce risk of dementia with advancing age.

There are many ways to stimulate neuroplasticity during training. One key is to continually introduce new skills and movement patterns into the routine. Increase movement complexity regularly and often. For example, instead of practicing the same stepping (agility) pattern every session, use a different stepping pattern every time. Another key is to play. Have fun, laugh, use your imagination and basically act like a kid again. Introduce games that require physical movement such as hop scotch or Red Light, Green Light and incorporate an element of fun. Finally, encourage your clients to continually learn new physical skills – play a sport or instrument; paint or sculpt; take dancing lessons.

Exercise for older adults is about much more than just losing weight and building muscle. According to the Functional Aging Training Model developed by the Functional Aging Institute, it is important to address all primary domains of overall functional ability including: cognitive/emotional; neuromuscular; musculoskeletal; cardiorespiratory; balance and mobility. It is possible to create exercise programs that will keep your older clients functional and mentally sharp for years to come.

To Delay Death, Lift Weights

Two new studies remind of what we already know, but sometimes forget
by Alex Hutchineson, from Sweat Science from Outside e-zine:

Trust me, I understand—in theory—that I should be stronger. Yes, I’m an aerobic beast (or an aerobic addict, if you prefer), but I’m not oblivious to the benefits of having a reasonable amount of muscle. When I play the “look, you’re touching the ceiling!” game with my 18-month-old, I’d prefer that she get bored before I have to admit that Daddy can’t military-press her anymore. And I’m hoping that 20 years from now I’ll still be able to push myself out of an armchair without help.
But there’s a gap between “should” and “do.” This gap is one of the most vexing riddles in public health, and even people like me, who spend their days telling other people what they should be doing, aren’t immune to it.

For that reason, I’m always eager for reminders of what’s at stake—and two new papers offer some eye-opening insights into the benefits of strength training, even for people who consistently blow the aerobic exercise guidelines out of the water.

The first is an analysis of the link between strength, muscle mass, and mortality, from a team at Indiana University using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The design was pretty straightforward: They assessed 4,440 adults ages 50 or up who had their strength and muscle mass assessed between 1999 and 2002. The researchers checked back in 2011 to see who had died.

For muscle mass, they used a DEXA scanner to determine that 23 percent of the subjects met one definition of “low muscle mass,” with total muscle in the arms and legs adding up to less than 43.5 pounds in men or 33 pounds in women. For strength, they used a device that measures maximum force of the knee extensors (the muscles that allow you to straighten your knee) and found that 19 percent of the subjects had low muscle strength.

The results, published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, found that those with low muscle strength were more than twice as likely to have died during the follow-up period than those with normal muscle strength. In contrast, having low muscle mass didn’t seem to matter as much.

Marlene's Note: Fro you folks who like charts (like me...),  here's one from that study. Be sure to read your legends (below) carefully).

Here’s what the results look like. LMM is low muscle mass, and LMS is low muscle strength: 
The reference group, on the right side in the front, is those without either condition. In comparison, those with both conditions were 2.66 times as likely to die during the study. Having low muscle mass but normal strength, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be such a bad thing.

The message here? Function matters more than what you look like. That doesn’t mean you can afford to let your muscle melt away as you age; having a good reserve of muscle mass may be important, for example, if you end up having to spend time in the hospital at some point. But it’s good news for those of us who struggle to put on muscle but persist in slogging through a reasonable number of pull-ups and other strength exercises.

The other study took aim at the perception that strength training is an afterthought in public health guidelines. Most of us remember that we’re supposed to get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week. Reams of data support the beneficial health effects of hitting this goal.

But the guidelines also suggest doing “strength-promoting exercise” at least twice a week—a clause that’s often forgotten and the benefits of which are usually framed in terms of avoiding frailty and improving quality of life, rather than actually extending it.

Researchers in Australia analyzed data from 80,000 adults in England and Scotland who completed surveys about their physical activity patterns starting in the 1990s. The headline result was that those who reported doing any strength training were 23 percent less likely to die during the study period and 31 percent less likely to die of cancer. Meeting the guidelines by strength training twice a week offered a little extra benefit.

One interesting (and, for me, reassuring) detail: Strength training in a gym and doing bodyweight exercises seemed to confer roughly equivalent benefits. So you don’t necessarily need to heave around large quantities of iron.

In this particular cohort, the benefits of meeting only the strength-training guidelines seemed to be roughly equivalent to meeting only the aerobic-training guidelines—at least in terms of overall mortality. However, strength training didn’t confer any protection against heart disease. There’s some evidence that strength training may reduce blood pressure but increase artery stiffness, effectively canceling out the heart benefits. This study can’t answer that question, but the findings do suggest that ditching aerobic exercise entirely may not be optimal. And indeed, the best outcomes of all—a 29 percent reduction in mortality risk during the study—accrued to those who met both the aerobic and strength-training guidelines.

So, in summary, strength training is good for you. Does that really tell you anything you didn’t know? Perhaps not.

That said, a few months ago, I wrote about a study in which runners received automated online advice to help them avoid injuries. The advice seemed painfully obvious: Listen to your body, don’t increase pace and volume too suddenly, and so on. But it worked. Injuries were reduced by 13.1 percent. That’s more or less what I’m hoping for by writing this piece, for all of us: that a reminder of something obvious, bolstered by fresh evidence, will help me continue to do what I know I should.

Your Holiday Survival Guide: The Fitness and Nutrition Edition 6 simple ways to help stick to your plan during the busy party season

By John Berardi, Ph.D.

Holiday preparations, family visits, and epic meals… end-of-the-year festivities can make it feel impossible to avoid skipping workouts, gaining weight, and landing on January 1st with a momentous food, beverage, and celebration hangover. That’s why I put together this Holiday Survival Guide.

It’s packed with the tips and tricks we use to help you prioritize health, fitness, and nutrition no matter what life — including the holidays — throws at you. Life can be calm and collected. Or it can be frenetic and crazy. The holidays, of course, offer a healthy dose of the latter.

Indeed, my wife and I have four little children — although it sometimes sounds like 97 of them — plus big extended families who like to visit for the festivities. Oh, you should see our house. Minions and princesses everywhere, bits of craft projects stuck to every surface, groceries to be put away, meals to be cooked and eaten, towels to be washed, and so many kids to be bathed and tucked in for sleep.

It’s really fun and it challenges our preferred eating and exercise schedules. Yet, over the years, we’ve gotten really good at eating and exercising how we want, even during the holidays. There are some modifications, of course.

I’ve passed these strategies along to people to help them get the most health and fitness — along with fun and joy — out of their own holiday seasons. Towards that end, here’s a Holiday Survival Guide” for you.  

We often say that your food and fitness strategies should be designed for your most hectic days — not just the easy, or perfect, ones. Use these tips to eat and move more intentionally during the holiday season. I promise you’ll be feeling strong, confident, and in control no matter how frantic your days.

Holiday Survival Tool #1: Eat slowly and to “satisfied” instead of “stuffed”
The most effective (and sanity-preserving) tool for holiday eating may also be the simplest one: Eat slowly. (And stop at “satisfied”, instead of “stuffed”). This strategy helps you avoid overeating for two main reasons:

Physiological: It takes 15-20 min for your digestive system to let your brain know that you’re satisfied. Slowing down a meal allows that to happen before you overeat.

Psychological: When you slow down, “sense into”, and savor your food, you feel content with much less. This means you’ll eat less but enjoy what you’ve eaten more.

Indeed, when eating slowly (and stopping at “satisfied” instead of “stuffed”) you can try all the delicious foods on Grandma’s buffet without guilt or needing to “work it off later”. 

Holiday Survival Tool #2: Take small, basic steps to exercise even when you’re busy. It’s one of the most common patterns we see: Folks who want to get (and/or stay) fit will exercise diligently for months, only to get derailed by the holidays and “fall off the wagon” for the entire year. That’s why it’s best to construct a simple “maintenance” workout, which you can do no matter where the holidays take you.

This plan should take only a few minutes a day, require minimal or no equipment, and it focus on compound exercises (big muscles, big movements). This will make it very effective when you want a good movement session but have limited time.

Holiday Survival Tool #3: Eating well on the go. 
The end of the year has most people bouncing from supermarket to mall to party to recital — not to mention the planes, trains, and automobiles routine if you’re traveling. When you’re on the go, it can feel like navigating a nutritional minefield: Hunger signals overpowering, junk food everywhere, little time to sit down and eat your veggies. Challenging, of course, but not impossible. With smart strategies you can eat well on the go no matter where life takes you.

Holiday Survival Tool #4: Make the perfect Super Shake

What’s a Super Shake? It’s a nutrient-packed, delicious, liquid meal that you can whip up and drink while you help a 4-year-old glue googly eyes on felt reindeers. You see, letting yourself get too hungry is one of the best ways to end up over-drinking and overeating. And during the holidays, you don’t always have the time to prep a nice, balanced plate of protein, veggies, fruit, and healthy fats.

Holiday Survival Tool #5: The best calorie control guide 
Want to get through the holidays without losing strength? Without gaining extra weight and body fat? That’s all possible. Sure, it’ll feel difficult with all that calorie-dense food in front of you. But your health can survive another year of Mom’s mostly-butter mashed potatoes and Aunt Marie’s pumpkin bourbon cheesecake if you just eat slowly and pay attention to portions.

No, no… not calorie counting. That’s often annoying, impractical, and inaccurate, especially at Christmas dinner. So try the “hand measure” system instead.

   Do this, eat it slowly, and you’ll have a nutritionally portioned, filling, energy creating plate of chow!

Holiday Survival Tool #6: Love your veggies! Another effective strategy to avoid gaining weight and body fat during the holidays? Eat lots and lots of veggies. They’re water-dense, fiber-dense, calorie-sparse, and full of the nutrients you need to keep your energy and mood up for holiday party #17. The only problem? Many folks don’t love the taste of veggies, especially compared to hyper-palatable holiday food.

The Pro-Truth Pledge

An Effective Strategy for Skeptics to Fight Fake News and Post-Truth Politics

BY GLEB TSIPURSKY

How do we get politicians to stop lying? How do we get private citizens to stop sharing fake news on social media? Deception proved such a successful strategy for political causes and individual candidates in the UK and US elections in 2016 that the Oxford English Dictionary named “post-truth” as its word of the year, with the definition of “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” The extensive sharing of fake news by private citizens led Collins Dictionary to choose “fake news” as its word of the year for 2017, meaning “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting.”

We are facing a nightmare scenario. For many years now, traditional gatekeepers for ensuring the veracity of public information—news media, civic leaders, authorities on various topics—have been trusted less and less. Social and digital media have only accelerated this trend, exemplifying the potential of technological disruption to undermine our democracy.

Fortunately, if we can create a mechanism that differentiates the liars from the truth-tellers, we have a hope of protecting our democracy. At the same time, tilting the scale toward truth requires addressing the psychological factors that cause people to tolerate untruths. Using research from behavioral science research about what causes people to lie and what motivates them to tell the truth, a number of behavioral scientists (including myself) and concerned citizens have launched the Pro-Truth Pledge at ProTruthPledge.org, which combines our knowledge of behavioral science with crowdsourcing to promote truth-oriented behavior.

The pledge is meant for both public figures and private citizens to sign. So far, thousands of private citizens across the globe and several hundred public figures and organizations signed it, including globally-known public intellectuals such as Jonathan Haidt, Steven Pinker, Peter Singer and Michael Shermer. You might be especially surprised that many dozens of politicians have signed it as well. […]

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4 Mood Boosters

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a combination of biological and mood disturbances typically occurring in the autumn and winter months. SAD is characterized by recurrent episodes of depression, hypersomnia, carbohydrate cravings and weight gain.

About 5 percent of the U.S. population experiences SAD, with symptoms present for about 40 percent of the year, depending on where you live.

There are a number of common mainstream medically-based treatment options, but there are also a number of lifestyle changes that can be effective by increasing serotonin, a mood stabilizing neurochemical.

Mood Boosting Strategies:
1.       Diet
2.       Exercise
3.       Sunlight
4.       Supplements

Diet: Individuals with SAD frequently report carbohydrate cravings and note that carbohydrate ingestion energizes them. In a study by Rosenthal, et al. depressed SAD patients and matched controls were fed two different equal-calorie meals, one rich in protein and one rich in carbohydrates. The SAD patients reported activation following carbohydrate ingestion, whereas normal controls reported sedation.

Simple carbohydrate consumption can result in a temporary elevation in mood, however, elimination of the simple carbohydrates and refined sugar from the diet can result in a more permanent solution for mood stabilization. The proposed mechanism by which carbohydrates exert their mood altering effect is through their influence on serotonin metabolism.

     Intake of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids found in cold water fish such as wild salmon, can affect mood via modification of neuronal cell membrane fluidity and the consequent impact on neurotransmitter function. Polyphenols, natural compounds found in plant-based foods that possess antioxidant properties, can reduce oxidative stress and aid in synaptic function. Because polyphenols have numerous mechanisms in the brain that can affect cognitive and mental health, a diet high in polyphenols (fruits and vegetables) can be used as a strategy to combat cognitive and psychiatric disorders.

Exercise: Exercise is an effective tool to ease depression due to:
   1). The release of “feel-good” brain chemicals including serotonin, endorphins and endocannabinoids
   2). The reduction of specific immune system chemicals, such as cytokines
   3). An increase in body temperature, which can have calming effects
The psychological effects of regular exercise include:
   1). Increases in self-confidence- Getting in shape can make you feel better about yourself
   2). Provides a distraction from the cycle of negative thoughts that can fuel anxiety and depression
   3). Facilitates social interaction, which can improve your mood
   4). Provides a healthy coping strategy
Utilizing moderate to intense aerobic activity has a large and significant antidepressant effect and is strongly supported as an evidence-based treatment element for depression. Middle-aged women participating in resistance training exercise have lower levels of depression and anxiety in relation to sedentary counterparts.

Natural Sunlight; Outdoor light exposure is a potential alternative or adjuvant to conventional artificial light therapy in SAD. Individuals with seasonal affective disorder were treated for 1 week either with a daily 1-hour morning walk outdoors or low-dose artificial light. The latter treatment did not improve any of the depression self-ratings, whereas natural light exposure improved all self-ratings.

Supplements
   Fish Oil: A meta-analysis of 13 randomized clinical trials concluded that supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids, found naturally in fatty fish, has a beneficial effect in patients with major depressive disorder.
   Hypericum: Hypericum perforatum (HP) is one of the oldest used and most extensively investigated medicinal herbs. Various clinical trials have shown that HP has a comparable antidepressant effect as some currently used antidepressant drugs used in the treatment of mild to moderate depression and certain forms of anxiety.
   Probiotics: In the last decade, research has revealed an extensive communication network between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system, known as the “gut–brain axis.” Advances in this field have linked psychiatric disorders to changes in the microbiome, making it a potential target for treating mood disorders.
   Vitamin D: SAD is prevalent when vitamin D stores are low. A prospective, randomized controlled trial found that increasing serum 25-OH D to more optimum levels was associated with significant improvement in depression and that vitamin D may be an important treatment for SAD.

Summary of tips to beat SAD: Increase omega-3 fats and vitamin D rich foods (e.g., salmon, tuna, sardines, egg yolks and mushrooms).

Eat foods high in B6, B12, folate and magnesium to support serotonin production (e.g., leafy greens, avocados, asparagus, broccoli, bell peppers, chicken, salmon, sardines, shrimp, lamb, beef, liver, non-fortified brewer’s yeast, and dark chocolate)

   1). Enhance immune health with selenium rich foods (e.g., Brazil nuts and tuna)
   2). Focus on foods high in polyphenols (e.g., organic blueberries, cranberries, blackberries and raspberries, organic dark cocoa, and antioxidant spices, such as cinnamon and turmeric)
   3). Eat more animal protein for the tryptophan, a precursor to serotonin (e.g., grass-fed beef, free range poultry, wild seafoodand pastured eggs)
   4). Consume foods high in probiotics to support the gut-brain axis (e.g., sauerkraut, kimchi and kombucha and grass-fed cultured dairy products like kefir and yogurt)
   5). Eat low glycemic carbohydrates and avoid white bread, pasta, rice, sugar and processed foods that cause a sugar “high” and subsequent crash
   6). Incorporate high intensity aerobic training and resistance training
   7). Get outside for a walk 30-60 minutes during the day
Consider supplements as an alternative to pharmacotherapy, under the supervision of a qualified healthcare provider

The Wizardry of Freud

BY MARGARET SCHEMER

“Clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging claim.”

The above is from a 2011 British Medical Journal article about Andrew Wakefield, the British physician whose “discovery” of a link between vaccination and autism fueled a world wide anti-vaccination movement. Since its publication in 1998, the paper’s results were contradicted by many reputable scientific studies, and in 2011 Wakefield’s work was proved to be not only bad science but a fraud as well: a British court found him guilty of dishonestly misrepresenting his data, removed him from the roster of the British Medical Society, and disbarred him from practice.

In his new book, Freud: The Making of an Illusion, Frederick Crews presents a Freud who was just such a fraud and who deserves the same fate. This is not the first time that Crews, a bona fide skeptic whose last book, Follies of the Wise: Dissenting Essays (2007), was reviewed in the pages of this journal, has written critically about Freud. Crews had been drawn to psychoanalysis himself (disclosure: this reviewer was, too) in the 1960s and early 1970s when, along with the late Norman Holland, he pretty much created the field of psychoanalytic literary criticism. But a prestigious fellowship to the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (he was a professor of English at UC Berkeley at the time) gave him time to delve deeper into Freud, and convinced him instead that psychoanalysis was unscientific and untenable. Since then he has contributed to the growing skeptical scholarly and historical scholarship on Freud.

Psychoanalysis is not only pseudo-science (as most philosophers of science agree, though for different reasons), but “the queen of pseudo-sciences”.

Philosophers of science have indicted key concepts of Freud’s psychoanalysis such as “free association,” “repression,” and “resistance” as circular and fatally flawed by confirmation bias. Historians have tracked down the actual patients whose treatment served Freud as evidence for his theories and have sought to place Freud and his theories in the historical and cultural context of his time. Crews—to his own surprise—became well known as a major, if not the major, critic of Freud in the public eye because of a series of articles he published in the New York Review of Books in the 1990s. For Crews is that now all too rare and rapidly disappearing creature—the public intellectual—who is able to explain and make accessible an otherwise unwieldy amount of erudite scholarship in clear, elegant, and jargon-free prose. Defenders of Freud have sought to discredit him as a “Freud basher,” thereby continuing the (not so honorable) tradition that Freud began of questioning the motives of a skeptic and attributing it to “resistance” instead of answering his objections. […]

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So, What’s In Movie Theater Popcorn Butter, Anyways? (Spoiler Alert: It’s not butter)

From the “Well Done” E-zine.

If you are a fan of movie theater popcorn with movie theater butter, you might want to stop reading now.  Remember back in those halcyon days when you had no idea how many calories were in a #2 Quarter Pounder with Cheese value meal, or how many grams of fat were in that pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream? Sometimes, ignorance truly is bliss (even if that “bliss” doesn’t bear any resemblance to reality…). You may not always want to know how the sausage is made, you feel me? If so, turn away, and go read a recipe for making French toast out of leftover pizza or something.

Are they gone? Good. Now let’s you and I talk.

I have written before on my deep and important relationship with popcorn. Sweet fancy Moses, I even put it in scrambled eggs. And while my favorite will always be the corn I pop at home, there is something so nostalgic and wonderful about movie theater popcorn. I don’t go to the movies that often, but when I do, there is a bucket of corn situation for certain. I can plow through a large bucket by myself if the movie is long enough and lunch a distant-enough memory. But I have never liked the movie theater butter. It is always so greasy, so rich, it diminishes the popcorn experience for me.

I never thought much about that movie theater butter because I didn’t eat it, and so did not care what was contained within. But in college, working for a student organization that planned and executed all the social programming for the campus, I came face to face with movie theater popcorning. We did movie nights on Fridays and Sundays, and we all had to take turns manning the concession stand where we, like every theater, really made our money. So, I had to learn how to make movie theater popcorn.

Enter cartons of Flavacol and Butter Flavored Topping. Yeah. That’s not the same as butter at all. Flavacol is the yellow powder that gets added during popping to give your popcorn that yellow buttery color. It is essentially just a super-fine salt with some coloring agents, although people swear it has butter flavor, even though there are no extra flavorings in it.  But Butter Flavored Topping? That is a whole other story.

Your movie theater butter has no butter in it, but it does have partially hydrogenated soybean oil (a.k.a. trans fats), beta carotene (a coloring, makes carrots orange), tertiary Butylhydroquinone or TBHQ (synthetic preservative that keeps the color and texture from changing as the product sits), polydimethylsiloxane (silicone based chemical that prevents foaming).

And, wait for it, buttery flavoring. They do not say what exactly makes a buttery flavoring, but they do admit that it isn’t butter. So, it is some sort of chemical that mimics butter.

And the part that is most egregious to me? Movie theater “butter” topping actually has 20 more calories per tablespoon than real butter. Never mind the whole trans fat, bad cholesterol, chemically laden, artificially flavored part, it is also 20 percent more caloric? That's adding insult to injury.  Especially since a large bucket contains a minimum of three tablespoons, and as much as six if you have them do the butter on half of the corn before filling up and more butter on top. That could also take your large corn into the over 2000-calorie realm.  Up from the about 1000 calories for a plain. This becomes doubled, and in just fat and chemicals.

I hope that if you stayed with this it is either because you don’t like fake oily butter flavored topping on your movie snack, or because you deep-down wanted some good reasons to just say no when that gawky teenager asks if you want butter on that. Because even if you want butter on that, you don’t want the pseudo butter poser they are offering. And if you are a movie theater butter fan who just couldn’t resist, I hope that I haven’t ruined your popcorn future. You can’t say you weren’t warned.

Why We Should Be Concerned About Artificial Superintelligence

This article is a bit long in its entirety,  but if you find the subject as fascinating as I do, it is worth the time to read it.

BY MATTHEW GRAVES

The human brain isn’t magic; nor are the problem-solving abilities our brains possess. They are, however, still poorly understood. If there’s nothing magical about our brains or essential about the carbon atoms that make them up, then we can imagine eventually building machines that possess all the same cognitive abilities we do. Despite the recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence, it is still unclear how we might achieve this feat, how many pieces of the puzzle are still missing, and what the consequences might be when we do. There are, I will argue, good reasons to be concerned about AI.

The Capabilities Challenge

While we lack a robust and general theory of intelligence of the kind that would tell us how to build intelligence from scratch, we aren’t completely in the dark. We can still make some predictions, especially if we focus on the consequences of capabilities instead of their construction. If we define intelligence as the general ability to figure out solutions to a variety of problems or identify good policies for achieving a variety of goals, then we can reason about the impacts that more intelligent systems could have, without relying too much on the implementation details of those systems.

Our intelligence is ultimately a mechanistic process that happens in the brain, but there is no reason to assume that human intelligence is the only possible form of intelligence. And while the brain is complex, this is partly an artifact of the blind, incremental progress that shaped it—natural selection. This suggests that developing machine intelligence may turn out to be a simpler task than reverse- engineering the entire brain. The brain sets an upper bound on the difficulty of building machine intelligence; work to date in the field of artificial intelligence sets a lower bound; and within that range, it’s highly uncertain exactly how difficult the problem is. We could be 15 years away from the conceptual breakthroughs required, or 50 years away, or more.

The fact that artificial intelligence may be very different from human intelligence also suggests that we should be very careful about anthropomorphizing AI. Depending on the design choices AI scientists make, future AI systems may not share our goals or motivations; they may have very different concepts and intuitions; or terms like “goal” and “intuition” may not even be particularly applicable to the way AI systems think and act. AI systems may also have blind spots regarding questions that strike us as obvious. AI systems might also end up far more intelligent than any human.

The last possibility deserves special attention, since superintelligent AI has far more practical significance than other kinds of AI. […]

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Ways To Improve Strength Without Increasing Resistance

"Put some weight on that bar!" It's shouted across weight rooms around the country and usually signifies that whatever someone just lifted was too easy or light. That is the prototypical way to add intensity on a given exercise: just add more weight.

However, at some point, just adding weight to the bar isn't prudent anymore, as things like technical breakdown can occur. One of the basic principles of exercise is that of progressive overload. Your body won't adapt and get bigger and/or stronger unless you place a large enough demand on it and overload your muscles. But, we need to figure out other ways to drive up the intensity of the movement, without simply throwing more plates on the bar. So, how do we do that?

Tempo: One of the easiest ways to add intensity to your basic exercises is to alter the tempo of the movement. For most, we just do the exercise in front of us, which doesn't normally include any set tempo scheme. We just move the weight.

By manipulating the concentric (up) and/or eccentric (down) parts, we change how hard the actual exercise is. An example of this would be doing Squats on a 2-0-2-0 tempo, meaning a 2-second lowering portion (eccentric), followed by no pause (we'll get to that later), then 2 seconds to stand back up (concentric) with no pause at the top.

This creates more time under tension for your muscles, which equals more strength and more muscle gain. Raise your hand if you want those two things.

Pause: Pauses are literally where you stop during an exercise for a specific amount of time, usually 2-3 seconds. The most common portion of a lift to throw in a pause? At the hardest portion, for example the bottom of a Push-Up or Squat, or the top of a Pull-Up.

These force you to maintain tension throughout your entire body as you hold everything tight. Additionally, a pause eliminates the stretch reflex, or that bounce feeling you get from the muscles as you move through a range of motion. Eliminating that "bounce" creates the need for more strength. More strength equals more gains, and we've already established that we're after more gains.

1.5 Reps: Using 1.5 reps is a way to add more work instead of more weight. In the case of a Squat, you would go all the way into the bottom of your Squat, come halfway up, then back into the bottom, only to finally come all the way to standing. Sounds like a ton of fun.

Similar to tempo, we're increasing the amount of time our muscles are under tension by doing that extra half of a rep. Additionally, since we have come out of the weakest part of our movement, we're going to see more strength gains as well.

Density: Density is all about doing more work in less time, which can easily ramp up the intensity of an exercise. Set a timer for 10-15 minutes, work within a certain amount of reps, and see how many sets you can fit in that given time. Then, the following week you aim to do more sets than before. Try pairing opposite exercises in a superset when adding in density. This way there is a little recovery time in between sets.

In addition to doing more work in less time, creating more overall volume, you are forced to take less rest time between sets. This will hinder your body's ability to recover fully from set to set, making each one subsequently more intense.

Negatives: Negatives solely focus on the lowering portion of the movement. There are some exercises where overloading the lowering or eccentric part of the movement can lead to larger increases in strength.

One exercise in which to often use negatives is Pull-Ups. The actual pull-up part of the exercise, where you lift yourself up to the bar, can be a challenge, but rather than eliminate the exercise all together, we use negatives to develop the strength and control to eventually be able to do a Pull-Up.

One thing is crucial—master the basics of each lift before you venture into some of these alternative loading strategies. Then add one of these to your training and get ready for more gains and plateau-busting training sessions.

Are You An Unconscious Racist?

BY CAROL TAVRIS

WHAT DOES IT MEAN to be a racist?

• A person who thinks their “race” or ethnic group is better than everyone else’s by virtue of genetic superiority, religion, customs, food, way of life, or beliefs.
• A person who fails to hire an applicant with the best qualifications if that person is from a different ethnic or religious group from the employer’s.
• A person who is part of an institution that requires him or her to systematically target and discriminate against African Americans or other minorities.
• A person of any race, ethnicity, or religion who feels more comfortable with others who are like themselves.

or:

• A person whose score on the Implicit Association Test (IAT) reveals that he or she is unconsciously biased against black people.

Some of the above? All of the above?

Michael Shermer Examines the Implicit Association Test

Throughout the first decade of this century, surveys repeatedly found that prejudiced attitudes—notably the once-common beliefs that blacks were inferior to whites, women inferior to men, gay men and lesbians inferior to straights—had declined sharply, especially among young people. Surveys, of course, supposedly assess what you think. But what if they assess what you think others think you should think? What if they simply reflect your awareness that it isn’t cool to reveal your actual negative feelings about another group? Self-report data is inherently plagued with this problem. Thus, most social psychologists who study prejudice and discrimination focus on what people do, not what they say they might do. For example, when researchers have sent identical résumés to potential employers, varying only a name that indicates gender, or implies race (a black-sounding name or membership in an African American organization), or mentions religious affiliation, many employers have revealed a bias in whom they choose to call for an interview[…]

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Pumpkin Seeds: 11 Evidence Based-Health Benefits

Pumpkin seeds, like all edible seeds, an immense nutritional and medicinal punch. After all, they contain future worlds within their compact structure. As Emerson said, “The creation of a thousand forests is within one acorn.”

In order to prepare their "babies" for survival outside the pumpkin, Nature equips these seeds with an extremely dense source of organically-bound nutrients, including exceptionally high levels of key, health-promoting minerals.

For example, a one cup serving (64 grams) of pumpkin seedshas 44% daily value (DV) of zinc, 22% of copper, 42% magnesium, 16% manganese, 17% potassium, and enough iron (17% DV) to improve iron-deficiency associated anemia. And remember, food-derived minerals are far more bioavailable and biocompatible than inorganic forms.

But beyond the obvious nutritional virtues of the seed, recent scientific investigations have revealed that pumpkin seed meal, as well as its pressed oil, may have great therapeutic value in alleviating the following conditions:

1). Prostate Growth: pumpkin seed has been studied for its ability to inhibit testosterone-induced prostate growth, a common causative factor in benign prostatic hyperplasia. It was also proven safe and effective in a 2014 clinical trial comparing it to the drug Prozasin. More details here.

2). Postmenopausal Symptoms: Women supplemented with 2,000 mg of pumpkin seed oil over the course of 12 weeks were found to have reduced blood pressure, increased HDL cholesterol, as well as reduction in the severity of hormone insufficiency associated symptoms, e.g. hot flash, headaches and join pain. Additional experimental research indicates that adverse cardiovascular changes associated with estrogen deficiency, such as blood pressure and lipid abnormalities, can be mitigated with pumpkin seed oil. 

3). Calcium-Oxalate Kidney Stones: According to a study performed in 1987 and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, children with calcium-oxalate crystals in their urine responded favorably to the supplementation of their diet with pumpkin seeds.

4). Cardiovascular and Liver Disease: A mixture of flaxseed and pumpkin seed was found to have heart-protective and liver-protective properties in an animal study from 2008 published in the Journal of Food Chemistry & Toxicology.

5). Drug & Chemical Toxicity: The protein isolate of pumpkin seed has been shown to alleviate acetaminophen (Tylenol) toxicity on the liver, and as methotrexate-induced small intestine damage in an animal model. It has also been studied to protect against carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury.

6). Arthritis: Pumpkin seed oil was found to compare favorably with the NSAID drug indomethacin in an experimental model of arthritis, but without causing liver damage, in a study published in 1995 in the journal of Pharmacological Research.

7). Hypertension: Animals fed pumpkin seed oil were found to respond more favorably to conventional drug-treatment with Ace-inhibitors and  Calcium Channel Blockers, likely because of its beneficial antioxidant properties.

8). Parasites: A preclinical canine study has shown that pumpkin seeds have significant activity against canine intestinal parasites.

9). Insomnia/Anxiety:  Pumpkin seeds contain a high level of tryptophan (22mg/gram of pumpkin seed protein), the amino acid precursor to serotonin – which is itself converted to melatonin, the "sleep hormone," in the evening. Research published in 2007 in the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology found that when de-oiled pumpkin seed was taken in combination with glucose, a clinical effect similar to that of pharmaceutical-grade tryptophan was achieved. 
     A 2005 study published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience found that pumpkin seed sourced tryptophan in combination with carbohydrate was as effective as pharmaceutical tryptophan in reducing awake time during the night.

10). Androgenic Alopecia (i.e. male pattern baldness): A 2014 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial published in Evid Based Complement Alternat Med found that men receiving pumpkin seed oil saw 30-40% increased hair counts while the placebo group showed only 5-10% more hair count on average. Learn more in our report on the study here. Pumpkin Seed Oil Found to Help Reverse Balding.

11). Overactive Bladder/Urinary Disorders: A 2014 clinical trial found that pumpkin seed oil, at 10 grams a day for 12 weeks, was safe and effective in reducing Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS) in patients with Overactive Bladder. More details here.

These, of course, are only some of the experimentally confirmed beneficial properties of pumpkin seed. Like all foods, there are likely countless properties which within the right context, the right timing, and the right amount, fulfill Hippocrates' age-old and timelessly true proclamation that food can be our medicine. Stay abreast of new research on pumpkin seed oil and other pumpkin components on our database dedicated to the topic: Pumpkin Research.

3 Ways Your Nutrition Can Help Heal Injuries Faster

Unfortunately, injuries are often an unavoidable part of exercise and sports. To recover fully, whether from a minor strain or major surgery, you must meet certain specific nutrition needs. The physical damage caused by training or injuries is the same as any other trauma. Even if the trauma is somewhat expected, the body needs to repair and recover from that damage before it can handle more stress.

Recovery from injury is a complex process that involves fueling the healing process, removing damaged cells, managing inflammation and repairing damaged tissue. It should be no surprise that nutrition has a direct impact on these processes.

1). Fueling Healing: One of the most common errors in recovery nutrition is misunderstanding calorie needs. Many affected by injury underestimate the role of calories during the healing process. Depending on the severity of the injury, calorie needs can increase by up to 20 percent above baseline. However, it should also be recognized that injury results in significant reductions in calories expended during recovery. By accounting for both decreased activity and the increased healing factor, we can fuel recovery without promoting negative changes in body composition

Protein is often the focus of recovery, as it plays a major role in tissue regeneration and repair. Even if there’s adequate protein in the recovery plan, special attention should be paid to the extent of the injury. Minor injuries might not require additional protein, but major surgery can increase protein needs by 10 percent. General recommendations for protein are between 0.8 and 1.2 grams per pound of body weight, but major surgery can increase this need.
Additional protein needs can be easily met though dietary changes; whey protein isolate or vegan protein options can help support increased needs.

2). Managing Inflammation: Swelling, pain, redness, and heat are signs of inflammation that are readily identified following an injury. Inflammation is an important and necessary part of injury recovery. It is triggered by the body's need to clear dead and dying cells and to start the process of new cell development. For as many as four days post-injury, it's important not to attempt to decrease this inflammation phase because it can impact recovery time. Following this initial stage, the focus should shift to managing inflammation.
A diet rich in fats knowns as omega-3s can help maintain the body's normal inflammatory response to activity  and injury. Research has shown that consuming 2-3 grams of omega 3s daily can positively influence markers of inflammation in the body. This amount can be met through a diet containing two servings of fish per week combined with increased intake of nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oil, chia and flax seeds—or through the addition of a fish oil supplement.

Bromelain, an enzyme found in pineapple, has been shown to promote reduced swelling and bruising after surgery by helping to maintain a healthy inflammatory response to exercise and injury. Bromelain is recommended in amounts between 150 and 500 milligrams per day. Although all parts of the pineapple contain bromelain, it is most abundant in the stems, leading many people to add a bromelain supplement to their diet.

Curcumin, the active ingredient in the spice turmeric, has been used as a medicinal food for thousands of years. It is most commonly found in curry powder, but research has shown that supplementation of 500 milligrams twice daily can promote reduced swelling and tenderness, specifically in those with chronic or lingering inflammation issues.

3). Repairing Damaged Tissue: The final piece of recovery nutrition involves supporting the creation of new tissue to replace the tissue damaged by injury. While many vitamins and minerals are needed to support recovery, vitamin A, vitamin C and zinc get the most attention.

Vitamins A and C help support the first few days of a beneficial inflammatory response and assist in the formation of collagen, which helps provide the structure of connective tissues such as tendons, ligaments and skin. Vitamin A has also been linked with a decrease in immune suppression normally seen after an injury.

Research has shown that a vitamin C deficiency can lead to irregular formation of collagen fibers, and hence to decreased stability of the tissues and abnormal scar formation.

Zinc plays a role in new DNA creation, the ability of cells to multiply and protein synthesis. Zinc deficiency, which is fairly common, can inhibit wound healing. Recovering athletes might consider a multi-vitamin containing vitamin A, vitamin C and zinc during the initial wound healing phase.

Amino acids, the building blocks of protein, are the last area of consideration for recovery. In times of stress and damage, the body has an additional need for some amino acids. Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the bloodstream. It is considered conditionally essential in times of trauma or damage as an important source of energy in recovering cells.

Leucine and its metabolite HMB have been shown to help slow muscle breakdown and nitrogen loss in injured patients. Arginine can increase nitric oxide production, which can improve blood flow to damaged areas, providing important nutrients and promoting removal of dead and damaged cells. Amino acids are part of complete proteins in the diet, some athletes prefer to take them directly in supplement form.

Understanding what is happening in your body following an injury can help ensure that your nutrition supports a full recovery so you can return to your normal activities a.s.a.p.. The above recommendations are guidelines. It's always best to consult a registered dietitian or your health-care provider when making significant dietary changes or introducing nutritional supplements. When choosing a nutritional supplement, it is imperative to look for a brand that has been certified for safety and is free of banned substances, as determined by a third party such as NSF Certified for Sport.

5 Worst Foods You Can Eat Before Bedtime

Matthew Kadey, MS, RD

Avoid late-night dietary disasters that can ruin your physique and even your sleep. Here are the 5 worst offenders. While surfing through Colbert, Stewart, and Fallon, your stomach starts to rumble. But if you don't tread lightly, you could easily derail your fat loss and fitness efforts. That's because the wrong post-sunset snack choices can easily end up padding your midriff with flab and even jeopardize your night of restful sleep, which is essential for fat loss and fitness improvements alike. To avoid this pitfall, here are five of the worst snacks you can reach for when the late-night hunger pangs strike, and their smart alternatives to avoid a next-day food hangover.

1. Late-Night No-No: Dark Chocolate: Over the past several years, dark chocolate has become a snack hero of sorts. That's because this dark delight is laced with body-friendly antioxidants shown to help fend off a range of maladies. A word of caution, though: Luxuriating in a chunk of dark chocolate should be a daytime activity rather than one you do in the wee hours. Chocolate is a natural source of stimulants such as theobromine and caffeine that can keep you tossing and turning for hours by charging up your nervous system. A good night's rest is essential for building a glance-worthy physique. This is the time when a significant amount of muscle recovery occurs, and when the body releases anabolic hormones like testosterone and growth hormone. Snacking on foods that disrupt your shut-eye could very well sabotage your fitness gains.

2. Late-Night No-No: Boxed Cereal: Who hasn't dug into a bowl of comforting breakfast cereal when the late-night munchies strike? Make this a snack habit, though, and your midsection will definitely remain a few cans shy of a six-pack. The problem with most boxed cereals—and not just the ones adorned with cartoon characters—is that they're chock-full of sugar, which can spike your blood sugar.Late in the day, when your metabolism starts to become more sloth-like than Usain Bolt-like, this sudden rise in blood sugar can trigger fat storage and ruin your buff-to-blubber ratio.

3. Late-Night No-No Ice Cream: For the most part, ice cream contains a snacking double-whammy. For one, tubs of Chunky Monkey and other ice cream varieties are often packed with sugar that can contribute to fat gain. The high amount of fat in the icy treat can also force your digestive system to kick into overdrive, which can lead to disturbances in sleep and, therefore, less of a chance that your body will recover properly from the gym beat-down you put it through earlier. Also be leery of brands made with chocolate or caffeine that can rev you up when you should be mellowing out.

4. Late-Night No-No: Pretzel Sticks: It's hard not to get tempted by the appeal of ripping into a bag of crunchy pretzels when cruising the TV channels after a long day. And aren't they way better than greasy chips? Well, it turns out this baked snack food isn't so benign after all. The problem with pretzel snacks is that they're made with white processed flour, giving them a sky-high glycemic index. This can not only encourage fat storage late in the day when your metabolism is slowing, but the spike in blood sugar can also disrupt healthy sleep patterns. It's also very easy to lose track of just how much you're eating; before you know it, you've polished off a whole bag and put yourself into calorie overload.

5. Late-Night No-No: Fruit Yogurt: Drop your spoon into fruit-flavored yogurt and you could be getting an unwelcome surprise: plenty of sugar. And we have already established that sugar is not supportive of a chiselled physique when consumed during the post-dinner hours. The main point of contention with blueberry, strawberry, and other fruity yogurt is that refined sugar is often more prominent than real fruit.

1). Eat more nutritious food at dinner, particularly protein and dense veggies. These foods require more processing, thus will keep you full for a longer period of time. Going easy on the calories at dinner is a great idea, but going so light that it sets you up to eat junk later is outright self-sabotage. Very destructive, don’t do it!

2). Drink a nice big glass of icey cold water. We have crappy thirst signals wired in, and the research says we’re very inclined to mistaking thirst for hunger. In addition to not having any calories, water is a good pick because most of us are a bit dehydrated anyways (unless you’ve a very diligent purposeful water drinker throughout the day), so slam a generous round of good old H2O!

3). Distract yourself--go do something. As the greater percentage of night time eating is due to plain boredom or a silly habit, doing something playful or even useful is far more therapeutic and far less destructive. Play a game, do some light n’ easy exercises, stretch, call or text a friend, go for a walk (and take your pet(s) with you), dig in to a hobby or other favorite past-time, sit on your patio and watch the sun set or take in the evening breeze, toss in a load of laundry, howl at the moon. Anything BUT entertaining yourself via feeding!

4). Simply ignore your urge to munch and go on about your business. In the vast majority of cases, it’s just an urge in your head, so you don’t need to answer the call. Any craving will lose steam after about 20 min. or so, so put on your big girl or big boy pantaloons and be a disciplined adult about it already. You have many other urges you don’t indulge in due to negative consequences (like slapping the stuffing out of your boss or other annoying person who flips your switches) and this sort of urge is NO DIFFERENT. Move along, move along, nothing to see there, and nothing need be done about it!

5). Nosh on a small bit of LEAN protein If you absolutely MUST eat something (which seems highly unlikely if you’ve fed yourself properly throughout the day…), a small piece of any lean meat, or if you’re a veggie person, go for a serving of a plant-based protein, but NO CARBS, and keep the fat on the scarce to non-existent side. The protein will go a much greater distance in taking the edge off, and without jacking your blood-sugar all over the place or keeping (or adding) fluff to your midsection.

Every one of the above 5 alternatives can work, have worked, and have been used effectively by myself and clients, so select one or more that you think may work for you and implement them. Also note that different approaches can work at different times, so try ‘em all!

Keep Unwanted 'Visitors' Away During Cold & Flu Season

This is one of the most important things you can do every day. It only takes a few minutes, but can keep you healthy when everyone else around you is not. Make it a habit and teach your kids to do it often.

Correcting Misperceptions About Hand Washing is Key to Locking Them Out

Keep Unwanted 'Visitors' Away During Cold & Flu Season

How Different Types of Exercise Affects Different Parts of Your Brain - Part 2

The studies so far haven’t addressed how long the effects last, but preliminary findings suggest adults will have to keep exercising to maintain the benefits.

Another approach is to start young, with findings that different types of exercise affect a child’s mental capacity in a number of ways. For example, if you want kids to focus for an hour — on a math test, say — the best bet is to let them have a quick run around first. That’s according to studies that show a simple 20-minute walk has immediate effects on children’s attention, executive function and achievement in mathematics and reading tests. Letting kids sprint or skip about has the same effect. A brisk walk can also help children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder to focus, although again it’s not yet clear how long the effects last.

These findings should be used to make decisions about the daily school routine, says Charles Hillman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who carried out some of the research. He agrees with current recommendations that children get at least an hour of exercise daily, but notes that it might be best spread over the course of the day. Because purely aerobic exercise keeps kids focused in the near term, giving them breaks to walk or move around every 2 hours might be the best way to promote learning.

In contrast, exercise that is highly structured and focused on specific skills, such as for a sport or to improve coordination, hampers attention. A bunch of drills and rules may be too taxing for children right before a test or a situation that requires sustained focus.
Instead, these kinds of specific exercises seem to build up attention span gradually over the long-term. In research yet to be published, Maria Chiara Gallotta at the University of Rome in Italy found that twice-weekly sessions of coordinative exercises, such as basketball, volleyball or gymnastics practice, over the course of five months helped children do better on tests that required concentration and ignoring distractions.

The cerebellum — the finely wrinkled structure at the base of the brain — has been long known to be involved in coordinating movement, but is now recognized as having a role in attention as well. Practicing complicated movements activates the cerebellum and, by working together with the frontal lobe, might improve attention in the process.

Making sure children are physically fit can have lasting cognitive benefits too, says Hillman. He has shown that children who are fit have larger hippocampi and basal ganglia, and that they perform better in attention tests. The basal ganglia are a group of structures important for movement and goal-directed behavior — turning thoughts into actions. They interact with the prefrontal cortex to influence attention, inhibition and executive control, helping people to switch between two tasks, such as going from sorting cards by color to sorting cards by suit.

Hillman focuses on children aged 8 to 11 because areas like the hippocampi and basal ganglia are still maturing, so intervening at a young age can make a big difference. And even small gains in fitness lead to measurable changes in the brain. In some of his studies, Hillman has put kids on year-long after-school fitness programs. Many are overweight, and while they don’t lose much weight, their brains do change. They’re going from being unfit to slightly less unfit, says Hillman. “But we’re still finding benefits to brain function and cognition.”

Adults too can reap brain gains from sporty challenges, says Claudia Voelcker-Rehage at Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany. Her research on older adults showed an increase in basal ganglia volume following coordination exercises that included balancing, synchronizing arm and leg movements, and manipulating props like ropes and balls, but not from aerobic exercise.

Voelcker-Rehage found that these types of exercise improved visual-spatial processing, required for mentally approximating distances — for instance, being able to assess whether you have time to cross the street before an oncoming car reaches you — more than aerobic exercise.

Another explanation comes from recent research by Tracy and Ross Alloway, both at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. They found that just a couple of hours of activity of the type we often enjoy during childhood, such as climbing trees, crawling along a beam, or running barefoot, had a dramatic effect on working memory.

This is the ability to hold on to information and manipulate it in our minds at the same time. “It prioritizes and processes information, allowing us to ignore what is irrelevant and work with what is important,” says Tracy Alloway. “Working memory influences nearly everything that you do, from the classroom to the boardroom.”

So what is it about climbing trees or beam balancing that is so beneficial? The researchers only found positive results when the activities were a combination of two things. They needed to challenge the sense of proprioception — the position and orientation of the body — and also needed at least one other element, such as navigation, calculation or locomotion. Basically, the advantages came from exercises in which we need to balance and think at the same time.

The more we learn about the effects of exercise on the brain, the more different types of benefits are emerging, extending beyond cognition to changes in behavior.

One of the most popular fitness trends of the last few years is high-intensity interval training, which involves quick spurts of all-out exercise. Its sheer toughness is claimed to provide the same benefits as longer efforts in a fraction of the time. These workouts might have an extra advantage: short bursts of activity can help curb cravings. And although the tougher the better, they don’t necessarily have to be gut-busting hard.

To test the effects of intensity training on appetites, Kym Guelfi at the University of Western Australia in Perth invited overweight men to come into the lab on four separate occasions. On three of the visits, they spent 30 minutes on an exercise bike, but at different intensities — a moderate, continuous pace; alternating between intervals of high-intensity cycling for 1 minute followed by 4 minutes of moderate cycling; or alternating between very high intensity, 15-second sprints followed by one really easy minute. The fourth visit consisted of resting for the full 30 minutes.

Craving control: After the most intense intervals, the men ate less of the provided, post-workout porridge and less food overall for the next day and a half compared with days they cycled moderately or simply rested.

One explanation could be that the exercise reduced levels of the “hunger hormone”, ghrelin. This is responsible for telling the part of the brain that controls eating — the hypothalamus — when the stomach is empty. When full, ghrelin production shuts off and hunger wanes. Following the most intense intervals of exercise, ghrelin levels were lowest.

What is clear is that these effects can endure well into old age, and it’s never too late to start. The hippocampus shrinks as we get older, leading to the typical struggles with memory. Exercise not only prevents this loss — it reverses it, slowing the effects of getting older. Voelcker-Rehage has found that the brain requires less energy to complete certain tasks after exercise. “We would say that points to the fact that the brain is more efficient,” she says. “It works more like a young brain.”

And in a study looking at yogis that had been practicing for many years, Sara Lazar at Massachusetts General Hospital found that some brain regions were remarkably well preserved compared with those of healthy controls that were matched for age, gender, education and race. “The 50-year-old’s brain looked like a 25-year-old’s,” notes Lazar.

If you’re still unsure what to do, there’s some overlap between the different exercises and benefits, so Liu-Ambrose’s suggestion is simple: “If you’re not active, do something that you enjoy.” The best exercise is the kind that you’ll actually do.