17 ms·

How Exercise Might “Clean” the Alzheimer's Brain

390 points by extraterra 8y ago

DiabloD3 8y ago
There is an awful lot of "might" in that article. Not disagreeing with it on face value, mind you, but the actual research basically states that you can't just start exercising... you have to already been exercising (and not even all that much, like, ~5000 steps ~= 2 miles a day, some HIIT (less is more) + low rep heavy weight lifting one or twice a week) benefit from this. So, all of us who are in our 30s now? The time is now. Also, re: weight lifting, try to target all of your muscle groups right. Don't be the guy who skips leg day, don't be the guy who has a shitty core and is trying to squat 250+. Guys like Jeff Cavaliere are who to look at on how to do this right.
- vanderZwan 8y ago
  > So, all of us who are in our 30s now? The time is now. This is true for exercising regardless, TBH. The more you build up now, the less trouble you have maintaining it later.
- atomical 8y ago
  The internet loves lifting. Cool, but the kind of legs you get from walking a lot are fine too.
  - elhudy 8y ago
    Agreed that walking is great. However, the positive bone-density effects of lifting are greater than those of walking [1]. >Both aerobic and resistance training exercise can provide weight-bearing stimulus to bone, yet research indicates that resistance training may have a more profound site specific effect than aerobic exercise. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9927006 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9927006
    - atomical 8y ago
      But does it actually prevent falls or make the elderly less likely to break bones?
      - elhudy 8y ago
        I'm not sure, but mechanistically speaking that would make sense, wouldn't you think?
        atomical 8y ago
        People thought that consuming more calcium would do the same thing. > While there is a small effect of calcium supplementation in the upper limb, the increase in BMD which results is unlikely to result in a clinically significant decrease in fracture risk. The results do not support the use of calcium supplementation in healthy children as a public health intervention. https://www.cochrane.org/CD005119/MUSKEL_calcium-for-improving-bone-mineral-density-in-children https://www.cochrane.org/CD005119/MUSKEL_calcium-for-improvi...
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
        dota_fanatic 8y ago
        By that same logic, should consuming lots and lots of protein yield bigger, stronger muscles? Or perhaps in both cases, the body must experience stimulus such that the tissues "know" they need to get at the necessary supplies coming in. Why build muscles, or stronger bones, if the body overall never does anything to need them? It would be wasted motion from their point of view.
- cheez 8y ago
  I do ~12,000 steps/day and HIIT 3x/week but I have trouble incorporating weight lifting primarily because I can do the other two without needing a gym, which is very difficult (single dad, 2 kids, sole caretaker, 2 businesses). Any suggestions?
  - wkrause 8y ago
    Resistance bands, a pull-up bar and a TRX go a long way for a fraction of the cost and space of a gym. Not as effective as free weights (in my personal experience) for putting on a lot of new muscle, but still quite effective.
    - guiambros 8y ago
      +1 to resistance bands. This has been life changing for me. Minimal space, fraction of cost, and I get to exercise in my home office, watching something useful (currently going through fast.ai videos). Double win. Here's the ones I use [1][2]. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006O0GDMO https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006O0GDMO [2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NH55SAK/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NH55SAK/
  - beaconstudios 8y ago
    do you have space in your home for a set of dumbbells? You can lift plenty of weight using just those. A barbell is better if you have room for some basic equipment (flat bench, squat stand/power rack, rubber mats for deadlifts if you have a solid floor).
  - fpoling 8y ago
    Dumbbells especially adjustable ones do not take a lot of space and they are not only for the upper body muscles. Squats with dumbbells especially bolgarian ones is a good way to get muscles on legs and it is enough to do it once a week as long as weights are heavy enough so you cannot do more than 8-12 repetitions. But I would advise to pay an instructor for first few times to get the proper technique to avoid mistakes leading to injuries.
  - nradov 8y ago
- saiya-jin 8y ago
  Not that I utterly disagree with what you write, but there is almost nothing you wrote mentioned in the article. Yes, almost any exercise is better than none. The earlier in life the better. Good core is super important in, well, anything including sitting on the chair. Hiit I consider very good based on effects on me, but would like to see some long-term results and its definitely only for people already doing some regular training. But where do you get the low rep info? This is good for only very specific exercise goals, mainly bodybuilding. Not something most people should strive for. Arnold type body looks great on photos, but is utterly impractical for normal life, super hard to reach and maintain. Low rep means you are close to your limits, which is area where injuries happen a lot, and wear on all parts of the body happens much more (muscles love it, but joints and connective tissue disagrees, and spine has a say in the topic too). Wear is something you are not aware of till its too late and all kinds of pain start to manifest. Lighter weights, more reps(15-20), shorter stops between them (30-60s), and you not only gain much better results in stamina (what good is it to be able to lift 100kg 3x times and you're done, when you need to move apartment for example or do multi-hour hike/anything else). Muscles grow like crazy too, if you have weights just right. Its much easier to keep good form of exercise when you are not at your limit.
  - elhudy 8y ago
    >Lighter weights, more reps(15-20) I was with you until you got here. A typical high-rep range for compound work should be between 8-12. 12-15 for auxiliary work. Most lifters would consider a rep range of between 3-5 to be low-rep. >and you not only gain much better results in stamina (what good is it to be able to lift 100kg 3x times and you're done, when you need to move apartment for example or do multi-hour hike/anything else Heavy lifting actually trains both fast-twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers, as it takes your entire muscle to lift heavy. The reverse can not be said for higher-repetition lifting. I've never trained in the mentioned rep range and anecdotally am able to do multi-hour hikes/anything else just fine. I find that the running/biking crowd loves to perpetuate this myth and generally does so with use of the phrase "meat-head".
    - saiya-jin 8y ago
- bad_user 8y ago
  If you’re in your 30s a much better bet for your overall health and for keeping Alzheimer’s away is giving up on sugar, since there’s a strong link between Alzheimer’s and insulin resistance. Exercise too does help a little with insulin resistance (but not enough to repair the damage done by a diet high in sugar), plus people that exercise tend to also eat healthy.
  - mg74 8y ago
    This. STOP EATING SUGAR PEOPLE!
    - DamnInteresting 8y ago
      > STOP EATING SUGAR PEOPLE! But sugar people are delicious! They're such sweethearts.
      - overcast 8y ago
        Sour Patch Kids for life <3
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - zeroxfe 8y ago
      eats shoots and leaves
  - francisofascii 8y ago
    This might be simplistic thinking, but isn't this why exercise helps? The liver turns the fructose from the sugar into glycogen. Exercise consumes the glycogen before it has a chance to be overly abundant, which is what causes the harmful effects. So you can either avoid sugar altogether, or have sugar with sufficient exercise.
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  > don't be the guy who has a shitty core and is trying to squat 250+ I don't really get this advice. I compound lift and when I was lifting regularly I peaked at 145kg/320lbs. I've never done focused core exercises with any regularity, I just focused on good form/posture and a neutral spine. Perhaps compound lifting itself is enough to build the core strength you need for squatting? Obviously I wouldn't recommend other people leave it out, but it doesn't seem to have done me any harm.
  - madeuptempacct 8y ago
    My impression is that if you have good posture to begin with, you might just "lift right" off the bat. I have to do a ton of supplementary work to balance out my posture issues. And the progress is slower than people generally like to admit.
    - beaconstudios 8y ago
      my posture has always been pretty terrible (until I got to higher weights and my posture has straightened out) so I'm not sure its that. Though I think squatting with a low bar and not moving up in weight until I was happy with my form may have helped to compensate for that.
      - madeuptempacct 8y ago
        It could be that we are taking different approaches to do the same thing - you hold off on moving up in weight and repeat the exercises, whereas I hold off, repeat the exercise, and do supplementary glute and core work to avoid my spine curving too much in the "right" way.
        beaconstudios 8y ago
        yeah that makes sense. Either way is a "safety first" approach, which is the most important factor.
      - slothtrop 8y ago
- Scarbutt 8y ago
  If you are squatting 250 you already have a strong core.
- chc 8y ago
  Does the literature actually suggest that skipping leg day causes Alzheimer's?
- madeuptempacct 8y ago
  Anecdotal and will get downvoted, but I have WAY more energy when I eat sugar. And yes, I have cut sugar for up to a month at a time before. I never got the magical increases in energy people talk about.
  - ianai 8y ago
    I run circles around the meat eaters in my life. My latest change was replacing maple syrup with date sugar. I also started drinking matcha often. The change to a Whole Foods sugar made all the difference in the stability of my energy levels. Matcha also makes the caffeine buzz a lot more steady, manageable, and even calm. Changing out processed foods for Whole Foods might outweigh the carb/fat/protein differences. There’s still a lot to biology and nutrition we don’t know, in my first hand experience.
    - tozeur 8y ago
      I really don’t see how a Whole Foods sugar has any different effect compared “normal” sugar...
      - mopierotti 8y ago
        This site claims that different sugars have different glycemic indexes. E.g palm sugar (from date trees) at 35 and brown sugar at 65. https://www.eatthis.com/sweeteners/ https://www.eatthis.com/sweeteners/
        ianai 8y ago
        The way my doctor put it: science likes to think “a molecule is a molecule” and it’s possible to isolate out the benefits of a food in individual extracts. But that’s been shown to fall short of reality over time. Nutrition is still a largely misunderstood system. Sticking with Whole Foods (bad autocorrect) should be more predictable/reproducible.
hwillis 8y ago
My Opa is struggling right now- mid 80s, thinking is getting very fuzzy, and he isn't exercising the parts (back) he needs to. It's causing his body to break down. The cartilage and disks in his ribcage and spine are collapsing, forcing him to hunch deeply (accelerating the degeneration) and crushing his lungs. If he had kept his back strong, it would have kept the stress off his tissues for decades. He would still be losing his sight, smell, and taste (horrible, for a chef), but maybe he would be less fuzzy. My Opa is also the most hardcore motherfucker I've ever met. It's not that he didn't exercise. He still heaves around 80 lb bags of sand, he's building a goddamn cottage almost by himself, he's still almost immune to pain. He's the toughest man I know, and even on the days he has trouble with fairly basic spatial tasks he can multiply three digit numbers in his head faster than I can write them down. His short term memory is still better than mine. He's still smarter than me. He's so stubborn he keeps falling off ladders every week because despite how much he has lost he just refuses. to. give. up. I can't understate how fucking scary it all is. The man is unstoppable when he puts his mind to something. Time has not worn down his will even a tiny bit. He breaks bones more often now, but he shakes it off, does the PT, and it's like it never happened. But even that isn't enough when age decides to take you. If your spine wilts, all the exercise and work in the world will not save you. When you can't sleep more than two hours at a time, what do you do? You can't force yourself to sleep. You just slowly go nuts, a little more each day. Aging is the real process of senescence, not just of getting older. Dementia, weakness, and frailty all seem increasingly like symptoms of a larger bodily/immune system degeneration. The inability to exercise, the constant pain, the constant sleep deprivation- those things could give dementia to a young man too. You can stave off the bodily decay until you start aging, but not after. Some lucky few, the Jeanne Calments[1], seem to be basically immune to senescence. They follow the path you'd expect, of a body slowly wearing out. The rest of us eventually hit a point where our bodies suddenly start to break down, and things like exercise just no longer produce the same changes they used to. The systems that handle growth, repair, immune responses- they just stop. I'm sorry if this is bleak, but it hurts to see him like this. I just spent a couple months helping him put up siding. He wants to finish that cottage so much. I hope it's not his swan song. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment
- 8y ago
narrator 8y ago
How about healthy people can do exercise while people with the early symptoms of Alzheimer's are kind of bad at it, but they just need to try harder and have their Medicare to pay people to help them flail around a little more gracefully and when their disease progresses we can just blame them for their disease because of their lack of exercise even though it's a bit hard for them to remember to exercise at that point.
thecatspaw 8y ago
@OP: where do you find all your links that you submit? Are you just submitting your RSS feed here?
DoreenMichele 8y ago
So, some biology 101: The lymphatic system is powered in part by the circulatory system and in part by physical activity (aka "exercise"). Fluid from the blood, minus certain blood products, goes out into the tissues and becomes interstitial fluid. Muscle action dramatically increases the rate at which it gets returned from the tissues to the blood. This is the mechanism by which the body cleans up most tissues. Except for the brain. The brain has a separate mechanism whereby lymphatic fluid (aka interstitial fluid) gets flushed out, taking wastes with it, only during sleep. This is a primary function of sleep. Personal firsthand experience suggests that exercise is frequently followed by napping precisely because these are separate systems. Exercise may start this process by flushing out other tissues, but your brain won't get flushed of wastes until you sleep. If you want to benefit from this research, you will need to have good sleep hygiene in addition to exercising. From what I gather, aerobic exercise is likely to do more good from the perspective of powering the lymphatic system than weight lifting.
- jfaucett 8y ago
  > From what I gather, aerobic exercise... That was my impression as well after doing some research in this area a while back. Although I looked specifically at longevity and cardiovascular studies there was a peak benefit at about 2hrs per week after which virtually no more benefits were observed.
  - copperx 8y ago
    2 hrs a week of intensive aerobic exercise sounds like an easy to remember target if that's what research shows.
    - taeric 8y ago
      What constitutes "intensive"? I finally got a heart monitor. So far, I get into "zone 4" for a few minutes every day. Zone 5? Not so much...
      - copperx 8y ago
modzu 8y ago
why is this pop-science trash at the top of the front page???
- rich_ard 8y ago
  Reading the comments, might be because of the lack of literacy on this topic in this venue
  - simias 8y ago
    Then do educate us instead of posting passive-aggressive comments! This is hacker news, not biohacker news, it's not really surprising that most people here (including myself) are not very knowledgeable on the subject.
    - Ensorceled 8y ago
      Raising literacy on a topic is beyond the scope a post on HN but observing that it is low is not.
    - abledon 8y ago
      Biohacker news is a subclass of hacker news and adhering to good SOLID rules esp Liskov sub principle it’s permissible to talk about that stuff here without breaking the interface contract
deleted 8y ago
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escherplex 8y ago
Seems that brain physiology and health don't live in isolation but are integrally linked with aggregate body muscular physiology. In a Frontiers in Neurology report [1] a prolonged sedentary lifestyle (mouse model) resulted in a 70 pct reduction in neural stem cells compared to a free roaming control group. Specifically, leg-loading exercises (weights) result in the transmission of neurological signals which catalyze generation of healthy nerve cells. A summary of the first technical article appeared in Frontiers Blog [2] if interested. [1] Reduction of Movement in Neurological Diseases: Effects on Neural Stem Cells Characteristics https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.00336/full?utm_source=G-BLO&utm_medium=WEXT&utm_campaign=ECO_FNINS_20180607_leg-exercise https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.0033... [2] Leg exercise is critical to brain and nervous system health https://blog.frontiersin.org/2018/06/07/neuroscience-leg-exercise-brain-nervous-system-health/ https://blog.frontiersin.org/2018/06/07/neuroscience-leg-exe...
dawhizkid 8y ago
I thought autophagy was what "cleans" the brain i.e. fasting or keto.
- lymeeducator1 8y ago
  It is and it does. Water fasting is the quickest way to trigger autophagy. Depending on the person this will start around 12 - 18 hours of no caloric intake.
lymeeducator1 8y ago
Regular exercise with elevated heart rate improve circulatory health (vascular and lymphatic). Low carbohydrate real, organic foods improve vascular function and prevent insulin resistance in the organs. Fasting performs cellular cleanup in all portions of the body. Our planet and thus our bodies are highly populated with viruses and bacteria. Our body is the best healthcare system we have and works continually to eliminate or quarantine harmful pathogens like Borellia (Lyme), Bartonella, Babesia, Erlichia, Chlamydia, malaria, epstein-barr, herpes, etc. The quarantined pathogens (from biofilms, bacterial starvation forms, etc) often reproduce during immune suppression and over time propagate across the body. Many of the 'deposits' in Alzheimers are composed of quarantined pathogens (lyme, chlamydia, etc) and fasting + diet + exercise can help minimize those. Personal experience here: Incidentally, the non-Hodgkins Lymphoma symptoms of Wikipedia very strongly parallel Bartonella and Babesia symptoms. The immune suppression from those often raises viral antibodies to things like Epstein-Barr. Cultural/native medicines lacked microbiology, but had a much better understanding of the body as a whole just from visible physical and patient reported symptoms than most western medicine practice today. Most pathogen testing is poor due to low blood/urine density and most doctors are authoritatively ignorant and refuse to look at other markers like TNF-a, TGF-b, C3a, C4a, etc blood tests. Steven Buhner has written a number of scientifically and medicinally based books on the bacterial/parasitic pathogens (he has a ton of references from China, Korea, Russia, Germany, India, and the US).
- ___alt 8y ago
  > organic foods improve vascular function and prevent insulin resistance in the organs This is bullshit. > Many of the 'deposits' in Alzheimers are composed of quarantined pathogens (lyme, chlamydia, etc) and fasting + diet + exercise can help minimize those. This is also bullshit. > Steven Buhner He's a well-known crackpot.
  - lymeeducator1 8y ago
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2949767/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2949767/ and there is another study that I don't have the link to where autopsies on 100 Alzheimer brains showed a mix of spirochetes, chlamydia, etc in the deposits. Buhner protocols have helped many tens of thousands of people with tick borne diseases and is widely used by a number of lyme specialists throughout the world. If you feel healthier eating processed food containing higher levels of pesticides, herbicides, etc then please continue to consume them. Be the center of your own black hole.
shaboi 8y ago
For what it's worth -- an anecdotal as tentative counterpoint: my mentor in my teenage years, an academic and just an excellent man, was an avid cyclist with a diet that supported said hobby. To the extent that he rode daily and would cycle from around lake Michigan every other year. He repaired and built ham radios in his basement, next to his de facto bike repair shop. He was a socialite and happily married. This is how he spent his days. Yet he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at 72, six months after mild symptoms started appearing. He passed less than two years later, and his personality & mind a year before that. Just six years before that he was detailing vector calculus proofs with me at his dinner table. I try not to be too cynical but I just can't help thinking of him and his bitter end when reading about these albeit preventative measures.
- joewee 8y ago
  Is it possible the onset would have been earlier without the lifestyle? 72 is late, isn’t it?
  - copperx 8y ago
    Yes, 72 is late onset. I don't understand why OP is cynical. There is a big difference between getting Alzheimer's at 50 and 72. If exercise and other measures give me an extra 22 years of productive life, I'll do them, whatever they are
  - coolbeanboi223 8y ago
    Depends on who is talking, my grandfather ate healthy and exercised nearly his entire life and lived to be 96 before he started getting Alzheimer's and died a few years later. I think most people would consider my grandfather to be a near optimal outcome in terms of lifespan and keeping your mind nearly intact until you are very very old. The number you are citing isn't even average lifespan in US for instance (78 currently). If you take out most of the things which are out of our control from that average, or things which cause disproportionate amounts of negative entropy on your body and recalculate it (things like homicide, suicide, accidental death, people who smoke profusely, people who drink to excess, people with severe mental health issues, etc etc) the number is much much higher.
lev99 8y ago
No matter what disease you are worried about, it seems like you need to follow the same advice in your day to day life: eat better, smoke less, drink less, exercise more, sleep appropriately.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  That's my belief too. So much for modern times and progress.
- abledon 8y ago
  Don’t exercise too much. You wanna take the car out to have the motor running every once in a while but if your driving 200km/h everyday the engine is going to wear out prematurely
  - manmal 8y ago
    Indeed, overtraining is bad for you in all aspects, it even hampers training progress - it’s really good for nothing. I heard that you can avoid overtraining by keeping an eye on heart rate variability - if that is low, you are either over-stressed or overstrained, and should tread lighter. Some fitness trackers can measure HRV.
    - Bartweiss 8y ago
      One thing I've been concerned with lately is the tradeoff between systems that strengthen with training and systems that degrade with use. Most of my favorite forms of exercise (climbing, hiking, running) are pretty hard on my joints, along with several other risks like shin splints and pulley injuries. I know there's some capacity to strengthen tendons and ligaments, but I can't find decent data on what tradeoffs I'm making at what levels of activity. Replacing everything I do with swimming and intermediate-rep weight training would almost certainly offer a better tradeoff, but I want to at least work out what price I'm paying.
      - Retric 8y ago
_zskd 8y ago
I recently joined a gym ( industrialstrengthgym.com/ ). It has an emphasis on having a welcoming atmosphere and community. When they asked me during orientation what my goals were, I said "Show up three times a week. I need to grow up, it is time to work out." And that really is how I feel about the matter. If you listen to Tim Ferriss' interviews and read his interview books ( Tribe of Mentors, Tools of Titans ), you will notice a pattern: MANY of these highly effective people MAKE time to have intense work-out sessions. All of the research and knowledge we currently have about human health and successful aging points to regular weight training and cardio training as the secret sauce for having a healthy mind and body as you age. Going to the gym and working out isn't about having a hobby or enjoying it. It's about being an adult and taking care of yourself. So grow up. Get to the gym. Disclosure: I am a member of the gym I mentioned above but have no other affiliation with the gym.
tbabb 8y ago
Buried lede: Major pharmaceuticals are giving up on Alzheimer's research...?!
buckthundaz 8y ago
Am I wrong to be frustrated with the way this is phrased. I think something to the effect of, "Lack of exercise pollutes brain and promotes degeneration." is more informative of the finding. Similar to "Time in nature heals you"...
emgee_1 8y ago
I do not know About exercise; there are other options too: fasting for several days ( 4-5) ; Your body will produce ketones as fuel for your brain and growth hormone will also be produced; both can be used to repair your brain. It is free and from ancient traditions
tim333 8y ago
>there have been traces of evidence for exercise playing a preventative role in Alzheimer’s disease It seems quite a weak correlation compared with the story 3 months ago "Alzheimer's risk 10 times lower with herpes medication" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17540094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17540094 Maybe healthier / exercising people are better able to deal with viruses?
nosjwshere 8y ago
so is alzheimer's partly caused by retirement in a way.

390 points by extraterra 8y ago

There is an awful lot of "might" in that article. Not disagreeing with it on face value, mind you, but the actual research basically states that you can't just start exercising... you have to already been exercising (and not even all that much, like, ~5000 steps ~= 2 miles a day, some HIIT (less is more) + low rep heavy weight lifting one or twice a week) benefit from this. So, all of us who are in our 30s now? The time is now. Also, re: weight lifting, try to target all of your muscle groups right. Don't be the guy who skips leg day, don't be the guy who has a shitty core and is trying to squat 250+. Guys like Jeff Cavaliere are who to look at on how to do this right.

vanderZwan 8y ago
> So, all of us who are in our 30s now? The time is now. This is true for exercising regardless, TBH. The more you build up now, the less trouble you have maintaining it later.
atomical 8y ago
The internet loves lifting. Cool, but the kind of legs you get from walking a lot are fine too.
- elhudy 8y ago
  Agreed that walking is great. However, the positive bone-density effects of lifting are greater than those of walking [1]. >Both aerobic and resistance training exercise can provide weight-bearing stimulus to bone, yet research indicates that resistance training may have a more profound site specific effect than aerobic exercise. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9927006 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9927006
  - atomical 8y ago
    But does it actually prevent falls or make the elderly less likely to break bones?
    - elhudy 8y ago
      I'm not sure, but mechanistically speaking that would make sense, wouldn't you think?
      - atomical 8y ago
        People thought that consuming more calcium would do the same thing. > While there is a small effect of calcium supplementation in the upper limb, the increase in BMD which results is unlikely to result in a clinically significant decrease in fracture risk. The results do not support the use of calcium supplementation in healthy children as a public health intervention. https://www.cochrane.org/CD005119/MUSKEL_calcium-for-improving-bone-mineral-density-in-children https://www.cochrane.org/CD005119/MUSKEL_calcium-for-improvi...
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
        dota_fanatic 8y ago
        By that same logic, should consuming lots and lots of protein yield bigger, stronger muscles? Or perhaps in both cases, the body must experience stimulus such that the tissues "know" they need to get at the necessary supplies coming in. Why build muscles, or stronger bones, if the body overall never does anything to need them? It would be wasted motion from their point of view.
cheez 8y ago
I do ~12,000 steps/day and HIIT 3x/week but I have trouble incorporating weight lifting primarily because I can do the other two without needing a gym, which is very difficult (single dad, 2 kids, sole caretaker, 2 businesses). Any suggestions?
- wkrause 8y ago
  Resistance bands, a pull-up bar and a TRX go a long way for a fraction of the cost and space of a gym. Not as effective as free weights (in my personal experience) for putting on a lot of new muscle, but still quite effective.
  - guiambros 8y ago
    +1 to resistance bands. This has been life changing for me. Minimal space, fraction of cost, and I get to exercise in my home office, watching something useful (currently going through fast.ai videos). Double win. Here's the ones I use [1][2]. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006O0GDMO https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006O0GDMO [2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NH55SAK/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NH55SAK/
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  do you have space in your home for a set of dumbbells? You can lift plenty of weight using just those. A barbell is better if you have room for some basic equipment (flat bench, squat stand/power rack, rubber mats for deadlifts if you have a solid floor).
- fpoling 8y ago
  Dumbbells especially adjustable ones do not take a lot of space and they are not only for the upper body muscles. Squats with dumbbells especially bolgarian ones is a good way to get muscles on legs and it is enough to do it once a week as long as weights are heavy enough so you cannot do more than 8-12 repetitions. But I would advise to pay an instructor for first few times to get the proper technique to avoid mistakes leading to injuries.
- nradov 8y ago
saiya-jin 8y ago
Not that I utterly disagree with what you write, but there is almost nothing you wrote mentioned in the article. Yes, almost any exercise is better than none. The earlier in life the better. Good core is super important in, well, anything including sitting on the chair. Hiit I consider very good based on effects on me, but would like to see some long-term results and its definitely only for people already doing some regular training. But where do you get the low rep info? This is good for only very specific exercise goals, mainly bodybuilding. Not something most people should strive for. Arnold type body looks great on photos, but is utterly impractical for normal life, super hard to reach and maintain. Low rep means you are close to your limits, which is area where injuries happen a lot, and wear on all parts of the body happens much more (muscles love it, but joints and connective tissue disagrees, and spine has a say in the topic too). Wear is something you are not aware of till its too late and all kinds of pain start to manifest. Lighter weights, more reps(15-20), shorter stops between them (30-60s), and you not only gain much better results in stamina (what good is it to be able to lift 100kg 3x times and you're done, when you need to move apartment for example or do multi-hour hike/anything else). Muscles grow like crazy too, if you have weights just right. Its much easier to keep good form of exercise when you are not at your limit.
- elhudy 8y ago
  >Lighter weights, more reps(15-20) I was with you until you got here. A typical high-rep range for compound work should be between 8-12. 12-15 for auxiliary work. Most lifters would consider a rep range of between 3-5 to be low-rep. >and you not only gain much better results in stamina (what good is it to be able to lift 100kg 3x times and you're done, when you need to move apartment for example or do multi-hour hike/anything else Heavy lifting actually trains both fast-twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers, as it takes your entire muscle to lift heavy. The reverse can not be said for higher-repetition lifting. I've never trained in the mentioned rep range and anecdotally am able to do multi-hour hikes/anything else just fine. I find that the running/biking crowd loves to perpetuate this myth and generally does so with use of the phrase "meat-head".
  - saiya-jin 8y ago
bad_user 8y ago
If you’re in your 30s a much better bet for your overall health and for keeping Alzheimer’s away is giving up on sugar, since there’s a strong link between Alzheimer’s and insulin resistance. Exercise too does help a little with insulin resistance (but not enough to repair the damage done by a diet high in sugar), plus people that exercise tend to also eat healthy.
- mg74 8y ago
  This. STOP EATING SUGAR PEOPLE!
  - DamnInteresting 8y ago
    > STOP EATING SUGAR PEOPLE! But sugar people are delicious! They're such sweethearts.
    - overcast 8y ago
      Sour Patch Kids for life <3
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - zeroxfe 8y ago
    eats shoots and leaves
- francisofascii 8y ago
  This might be simplistic thinking, but isn't this why exercise helps? The liver turns the fructose from the sugar into glycogen. Exercise consumes the glycogen before it has a chance to be overly abundant, which is what causes the harmful effects. So you can either avoid sugar altogether, or have sugar with sufficient exercise.
beaconstudios 8y ago
> don't be the guy who has a shitty core and is trying to squat 250+ I don't really get this advice. I compound lift and when I was lifting regularly I peaked at 145kg/320lbs. I've never done focused core exercises with any regularity, I just focused on good form/posture and a neutral spine. Perhaps compound lifting itself is enough to build the core strength you need for squatting? Obviously I wouldn't recommend other people leave it out, but it doesn't seem to have done me any harm.
- madeuptempacct 8y ago
  My impression is that if you have good posture to begin with, you might just "lift right" off the bat. I have to do a ton of supplementary work to balance out my posture issues. And the progress is slower than people generally like to admit.
  - beaconstudios 8y ago
    my posture has always been pretty terrible (until I got to higher weights and my posture has straightened out) so I'm not sure its that. Though I think squatting with a low bar and not moving up in weight until I was happy with my form may have helped to compensate for that.
    - madeuptempacct 8y ago
      It could be that we are taking different approaches to do the same thing - you hold off on moving up in weight and repeat the exercises, whereas I hold off, repeat the exercise, and do supplementary glute and core work to avoid my spine curving too much in the "right" way.
      - beaconstudios 8y ago
        yeah that makes sense. Either way is a "safety first" approach, which is the most important factor.
    - slothtrop 8y ago
Scarbutt 8y ago
If you are squatting 250 you already have a strong core.
chc 8y ago
Does the literature actually suggest that skipping leg day causes Alzheimer's?
madeuptempacct 8y ago
Anecdotal and will get downvoted, but I have WAY more energy when I eat sugar. And yes, I have cut sugar for up to a month at a time before. I never got the magical increases in energy people talk about.
- ianai 8y ago
  I run circles around the meat eaters in my life. My latest change was replacing maple syrup with date sugar. I also started drinking matcha often. The change to a Whole Foods sugar made all the difference in the stability of my energy levels. Matcha also makes the caffeine buzz a lot more steady, manageable, and even calm. Changing out processed foods for Whole Foods might outweigh the carb/fat/protein differences. There’s still a lot to biology and nutrition we don’t know, in my first hand experience.
  - tozeur 8y ago
    I really don’t see how a Whole Foods sugar has any different effect compared “normal” sugar...
    - mopierotti 8y ago
      This site claims that different sugars have different glycemic indexes. E.g palm sugar (from date trees) at 35 and brown sugar at 65. https://www.eatthis.com/sweeteners/ https://www.eatthis.com/sweeteners/
      - ianai 8y ago
        The way my doctor put it: science likes to think “a molecule is a molecule” and it’s possible to isolate out the benefits of a food in individual extracts. But that’s been shown to fall short of reality over time. Nutrition is still a largely misunderstood system. Sticking with Whole Foods (bad autocorrect) should be more predictable/reproducible.

hwillis 8y ago

My Opa is struggling right now- mid 80s, thinking is getting very fuzzy, and he isn't exercising the parts (back) he needs to. It's causing his body to break down. The cartilage and disks in his ribcage and spine are collapsing, forcing him to hunch deeply (accelerating the degeneration) and crushing his lungs. If he had kept his back strong, it would have kept the stress off his tissues for decades. He would still be losing his sight, smell, and taste (horrible, for a chef), but maybe he would be less fuzzy. My Opa is also the most hardcore motherfucker I've ever met. It's not that he didn't exercise. He still heaves around 80 lb bags of sand, he's building a goddamn cottage almost by himself, he's still almost immune to pain. He's the toughest man I know, and even on the days he has trouble with fairly basic spatial tasks he can multiply three digit numbers in his head faster than I can write them down. His short term memory is still better than mine. He's still smarter than me. He's so stubborn he keeps falling off ladders every week because despite how much he has lost he just refuses. to. give. up. I can't understate how fucking scary it all is. The man is unstoppable when he puts his mind to something. Time has not worn down his will even a tiny bit. He breaks bones more often now, but he shakes it off, does the PT, and it's like it never happened. But even that isn't enough when age decides to take you. If your spine wilts, all the exercise and work in the world will not save you. When you can't sleep more than two hours at a time, what do you do? You can't force yourself to sleep. You just slowly go nuts, a little more each day. Aging is the real process of senescence, not just of getting older. Dementia, weakness, and frailty all seem increasingly like symptoms of a larger bodily/immune system degeneration. The inability to exercise, the constant pain, the constant sleep deprivation- those things could give dementia to a young man too. You can stave off the bodily decay until you start aging, but not after. Some lucky few, the Jeanne Calments[1], seem to be basically immune to senescence. They follow the path you'd expect, of a body slowly wearing out. The rest of us eventually hit a point where our bodies suddenly start to break down, and things like exercise just no longer produce the same changes they used to. The systems that handle growth, repair, immune responses- they just stop. I'm sorry if this is bleak, but it hurts to see him like this. I just spent a couple months helping him put up siding. He wants to finish that cottage so much. I hope it's not his swan song. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment

8y ago

narrator 8y ago

How about healthy people can do exercise while people with the early symptoms of Alzheimer's are kind of bad at it, but they just need to try harder and have their Medicare to pay people to help them flail around a little more gracefully and when their disease progresses we can just blame them for their disease because of their lack of exercise even though it's a bit hard for them to remember to exercise at that point.

thecatspaw 8y ago

@OP: where do you find all your links that you submit? Are you just submitting your RSS feed here?

DoreenMichele 8y ago

So, some biology 101: The lymphatic system is powered in part by the circulatory system and in part by physical activity (aka "exercise"). Fluid from the blood, minus certain blood products, goes out into the tissues and becomes interstitial fluid. Muscle action dramatically increases the rate at which it gets returned from the tissues to the blood. This is the mechanism by which the body cleans up most tissues. Except for the brain. The brain has a separate mechanism whereby lymphatic fluid (aka interstitial fluid) gets flushed out, taking wastes with it, only during sleep. This is a primary function of sleep. Personal firsthand experience suggests that exercise is frequently followed by napping precisely because these are separate systems. Exercise may start this process by flushing out other tissues, but your brain won't get flushed of wastes until you sleep. If you want to benefit from this research, you will need to have good sleep hygiene in addition to exercising. From what I gather, aerobic exercise is likely to do more good from the perspective of powering the lymphatic system than weight lifting.

jfaucett 8y ago
> From what I gather, aerobic exercise... That was my impression as well after doing some research in this area a while back. Although I looked specifically at longevity and cardiovascular studies there was a peak benefit at about 2hrs per week after which virtually no more benefits were observed.
- copperx 8y ago
  2 hrs a week of intensive aerobic exercise sounds like an easy to remember target if that's what research shows.
  - taeric 8y ago
    What constitutes "intensive"? I finally got a heart monitor. So far, I get into "zone 4" for a few minutes every day. Zone 5? Not so much...
    - copperx 8y ago

modzu 8y ago

why is this pop-science trash at the top of the front page???

rich_ard 8y ago
Reading the comments, might be because of the lack of literacy on this topic in this venue
- simias 8y ago
  Then do educate us instead of posting passive-aggressive comments! This is hacker news, not biohacker news, it's not really surprising that most people here (including myself) are not very knowledgeable on the subject.
  - Ensorceled 8y ago
    Raising literacy on a topic is beyond the scope a post on HN but observing that it is low is not.
  - abledon 8y ago
    Biohacker news is a subclass of hacker news and adhering to good SOLID rules esp Liskov sub principle it’s permissible to talk about that stuff here without breaking the interface contract

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

escherplex 8y ago

Seems that brain physiology and health don't live in isolation but are integrally linked with aggregate body muscular physiology. In a Frontiers in Neurology report [1] a prolonged sedentary lifestyle (mouse model) resulted in a 70 pct reduction in neural stem cells compared to a free roaming control group. Specifically, leg-loading exercises (weights) result in the transmission of neurological signals which catalyze generation of healthy nerve cells. A summary of the first technical article appeared in Frontiers Blog [2] if interested. [1] Reduction of Movement in Neurological Diseases: Effects on Neural Stem Cells Characteristics https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.00336/full?utm_source=G-BLO&utm_medium=WEXT&utm_campaign=ECO_FNINS_20180607_leg-exercise https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2018.0033... [2] Leg exercise is critical to brain and nervous system health https://blog.frontiersin.org/2018/06/07/neuroscience-leg-exercise-brain-nervous-system-health/ https://blog.frontiersin.org/2018/06/07/neuroscience-leg-exe...

dawhizkid 8y ago

I thought autophagy was what "cleans" the brain i.e. fasting or keto.

lymeeducator1 8y ago
It is and it does. Water fasting is the quickest way to trigger autophagy. Depending on the person this will start around 12 - 18 hours of no caloric intake.

lymeeducator1 8y ago

Regular exercise with elevated heart rate improve circulatory health (vascular and lymphatic). Low carbohydrate real, organic foods improve vascular function and prevent insulin resistance in the organs. Fasting performs cellular cleanup in all portions of the body. Our planet and thus our bodies are highly populated with viruses and bacteria. Our body is the best healthcare system we have and works continually to eliminate or quarantine harmful pathogens like Borellia (Lyme), Bartonella, Babesia, Erlichia, Chlamydia, malaria, epstein-barr, herpes, etc. The quarantined pathogens (from biofilms, bacterial starvation forms, etc) often reproduce during immune suppression and over time propagate across the body. Many of the 'deposits' in Alzheimers are composed of quarantined pathogens (lyme, chlamydia, etc) and fasting + diet + exercise can help minimize those. Personal experience here: Incidentally, the non-Hodgkins Lymphoma symptoms of Wikipedia very strongly parallel Bartonella and Babesia symptoms. The immune suppression from those often raises viral antibodies to things like Epstein-Barr. Cultural/native medicines lacked microbiology, but had a much better understanding of the body as a whole just from visible physical and patient reported symptoms than most western medicine practice today. Most pathogen testing is poor due to low blood/urine density and most doctors are authoritatively ignorant and refuse to look at other markers like TNF-a, TGF-b, C3a, C4a, etc blood tests. Steven Buhner has written a number of scientifically and medicinally based books on the bacterial/parasitic pathogens (he has a ton of references from China, Korea, Russia, Germany, India, and the US).

___alt 8y ago
> organic foods improve vascular function and prevent insulin resistance in the organs This is bullshit. > Many of the 'deposits' in Alzheimers are composed of quarantined pathogens (lyme, chlamydia, etc) and fasting + diet + exercise can help minimize those. This is also bullshit. > Steven Buhner He's a well-known crackpot.
- lymeeducator1 8y ago
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2949767/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2949767/ and there is another study that I don't have the link to where autopsies on 100 Alzheimer brains showed a mix of spirochetes, chlamydia, etc in the deposits. Buhner protocols have helped many tens of thousands of people with tick borne diseases and is widely used by a number of lyme specialists throughout the world. If you feel healthier eating processed food containing higher levels of pesticides, herbicides, etc then please continue to consume them. Be the center of your own black hole.

shaboi 8y ago

For what it's worth -- an anecdotal as tentative counterpoint: my mentor in my teenage years, an academic and just an excellent man, was an avid cyclist with a diet that supported said hobby. To the extent that he rode daily and would cycle from around lake Michigan every other year. He repaired and built ham radios in his basement, next to his de facto bike repair shop. He was a socialite and happily married. This is how he spent his days. Yet he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at 72, six months after mild symptoms started appearing. He passed less than two years later, and his personality & mind a year before that. Just six years before that he was detailing vector calculus proofs with me at his dinner table. I try not to be too cynical but I just can't help thinking of him and his bitter end when reading about these albeit preventative measures.

joewee 8y ago
Is it possible the onset would have been earlier without the lifestyle? 72 is late, isn’t it?
- copperx 8y ago
  Yes, 72 is late onset. I don't understand why OP is cynical. There is a big difference between getting Alzheimer's at 50 and 72. If exercise and other measures give me an extra 22 years of productive life, I'll do them, whatever they are
- coolbeanboi223 8y ago
  Depends on who is talking, my grandfather ate healthy and exercised nearly his entire life and lived to be 96 before he started getting Alzheimer's and died a few years later. I think most people would consider my grandfather to be a near optimal outcome in terms of lifespan and keeping your mind nearly intact until you are very very old. The number you are citing isn't even average lifespan in US for instance (78 currently). If you take out most of the things which are out of our control from that average, or things which cause disproportionate amounts of negative entropy on your body and recalculate it (things like homicide, suicide, accidental death, people who smoke profusely, people who drink to excess, people with severe mental health issues, etc etc) the number is much much higher.

lev99 8y ago

No matter what disease you are worried about, it seems like you need to follow the same advice in your day to day life: eat better, smoke less, drink less, exercise more, sleep appropriately.

agumonkey 8y ago
That's my belief too. So much for modern times and progress.
abledon 8y ago
Don’t exercise too much. You wanna take the car out to have the motor running every once in a while but if your driving 200km/h everyday the engine is going to wear out prematurely
- manmal 8y ago
  Indeed, overtraining is bad for you in all aspects, it even hampers training progress - it’s really good for nothing. I heard that you can avoid overtraining by keeping an eye on heart rate variability - if that is low, you are either over-stressed or overstrained, and should tread lighter. Some fitness trackers can measure HRV.
  - Bartweiss 8y ago
    One thing I've been concerned with lately is the tradeoff between systems that strengthen with training and systems that degrade with use. Most of my favorite forms of exercise (climbing, hiking, running) are pretty hard on my joints, along with several other risks like shin splints and pulley injuries. I know there's some capacity to strengthen tendons and ligaments, but I can't find decent data on what tradeoffs I'm making at what levels of activity. Replacing everything I do with swimming and intermediate-rep weight training would almost certainly offer a better tradeoff, but I want to at least work out what price I'm paying.
    - Retric 8y ago

_zskd 8y ago

I recently joined a gym ( industrialstrengthgym.com/ ). It has an emphasis on having a welcoming atmosphere and community. When they asked me during orientation what my goals were, I said "Show up three times a week. I need to grow up, it is time to work out." And that really is how I feel about the matter. If you listen to Tim Ferriss' interviews and read his interview books ( Tribe of Mentors, Tools of Titans ), you will notice a pattern: MANY of these highly effective people MAKE time to have intense work-out sessions. All of the research and knowledge we currently have about human health and successful aging points to regular weight training and cardio training as the secret sauce for having a healthy mind and body as you age. Going to the gym and working out isn't about having a hobby or enjoying it. It's about being an adult and taking care of yourself. So grow up. Get to the gym. Disclosure: I am a member of the gym I mentioned above but have no other affiliation with the gym.

tbabb 8y ago

Buried lede: Major pharmaceuticals are giving up on Alzheimer's research...?!

buckthundaz 8y ago

Am I wrong to be frustrated with the way this is phrased. I think something to the effect of, "Lack of exercise pollutes brain and promotes degeneration." is more informative of the finding. Similar to "Time in nature heals you"...

emgee_1 8y ago

I do not know About exercise; there are other options too: fasting for several days ( 4-5) ; Your body will produce ketones as fuel for your brain and growth hormone will also be produced; both can be used to repair your brain. It is free and from ancient traditions

tim333 8y ago

>there have been traces of evidence for exercise playing a preventative role in Alzheimer’s disease It seems quite a weak correlation compared with the story 3 months ago "Alzheimer's risk 10 times lower with herpes medication" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17540094 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17540094 Maybe healthier / exercising people are better able to deal with viruses?

nosjwshere 8y ago

so is alzheimer's partly caused by retirement in a way.