Category: exercise

How a road trip is good for your brain health

Taking a road trip, or most other forms of travel for that matter, is good for your brain health because you are constantly exposed to novelty (assuming you don’t keep on taking the same trip). And we know from previous research (see this post on enriched environment) that novelty increases brain health by promoting neurogenesis.…

The age of Olympians

Jeannie Longo, Image via Wikipedia The Olympics is a gathering of the world’s greatest athletes, but does it have something to tell us regarding general trends? Sure, two 21 year olds from Jamaica won the men and women 100 meter sprints (traditionally sprinters peak at around 25): youth was served, but is there any hope…

45 minutes of vigorous exercise 6 days a week 52 weeks a year to increase your survival rate.

Image via Wikipedia Yesterday, I wrote a piece about a recent paper that found that runners had a higher survival rate and a lower rate of disability as they aged compared to non-runners. While I had a few problems with the study in the end I agreed with the authors conclusions (mainly a problem of…

Heart rate variability: health predictor and what you can do about it.

Low heart rate variability (HRV) s associated with reduced lifespan, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, several mental health diseases and a growing list of other conditions I will cover in this post. For a more thorough background check out my two previous posts: heart measurements for your health , what heart rate measurements can tell you…

Why low levels of the good cholesterol is bad for your brain

Low levels of the good cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), is linked with worse memory performance. So here is another example of what is traditionally considered a heart health measurement that also give us important information about our brain health (see here). The nice thing about the various cholesterol measurements is that many of you will…