Sitting for a long time shrinks your brain even if you exercise
alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
But since we have more fixes for physical degeneration than mental degeneration, we see most sedentary people kept alive through medication and constant surgeries well into their 80s and 90s while there is nothing much to reverse whats happening to the brain.
Having worked for a while at a hospital, I feel people who really haven't lead active lives or are just naturally less active or don't like too much activity fall into this trap, where the medical system will keep them physically alive for few decades longer than in the past. They need to be told this could be a trap. Instead we keep them alive, let their brains degenerate and study them like lab rats.
Basically, there's been an extension of life years, but there has also been an extension of the useless years at the end of people's lives. He makes a case that these useless years are a direct result of a lack of exercise.
Good book. Recommend.
At first, about 5 years ago, she struggled to walk. Anything over 30 feet and she had to stop for a couple minutes to catch her breath. At the time, she was refusing to use a walker since she would say "Those are for old people!" as if she wasn't already 80 years old.
Of course, when you can't walk, you don't, and so everything gets worse. She eventually accepted that she needed a walker, but by then her knees had degraded so bad that even with it, she could barely move. Getting off the couch is an ordeal that requires two people to lift her up. She got dementia and is now basically bed-bound at a memory care facility.
She stopped living and began merely surviving a minimum of 5 years ago, likely closer to 10 years. Personally, I never want to live like that. If I get to the point where I can't do anything, just put a bullet in me or something. I'm not afraid of dying.
Until then, I'm hitting the gym 2-4x/week. Every time, at least 1,000 steps on the stair machine or 1.5 miles on a treadmill, plus some weights. I've only been going for about 3 months, hoping to increase my speed and endurance and turn it into 2,000 steps or 3 miles.
No. I am not saying that exercise is futile. It is as useful as conventional wisdom says. But the whole thread here (except the obligatory “but correlation, or causation?” crowd) seems to have forgotten the topic. Excercise is not enough. You also have to be not-sedentary.
Almost? What's the point of living a miserable life full of malaise and pain?
The novel point on this topic (relative to mainstream knowledge[1]) is that exercise is not enough. Being non-sedentary (less so) is also important. You should have both as part of your “lifestyle”.
[1] Ostensibly this book that you mentioned tells about the benefits of exercise. I suppose that’s still a well-guarded secret?
> But since we have more fixes for physical degeneration than mental degeneration, we see most sedentary people kept alive through medication and constant surgeries well into their 80s and 90s while there is nothing much to reverse whats happening to the brain.
Doesn’t regular exercise help the brain as well as the rest of the body? The brain is part of the body.
Now in addition the OP says that sitting is bad for the brain. Controlling for exercise.
> Having worked for a while at a hospital, I feel people who really haven't lead active lives or are just naturally less active or don't like too much activity fall into this trap, where the medical system will keep them physically alive for few decades longer than in the past. They need to be told this could be a trap. Instead we keep them alive, let their brains degenerate and study them like lab rats.
Since the article is about sitting and controlling for exercise I’m gonna assume this means sedentary people as in having been sat on their ass a lot. Irrespective of exercise level.
What is a good routine? Do I switch positions (right now I'm slav squatting) and maybe throw in some short bouts of exercise every 30 minutes?
I’d recommend trying it. This guy overanalyzed the whole topic, great resource: https://ocdevel.com/walk/guide#why_desk
Plus some days I burn something like 1,000 calories. That’s a pretty big bonus.
https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-prod... is the article that did it for me!
Wolfram even walks in the forest while working on his laptop. Haven't tried that one myself :D.
Don’t forget, even though desk work is relatively new to the last century/industrial revolution, humans have been sitting for a long time - traders and teachers, scholars and students (probably not a good example sample but you get the idea). You’ll be fine.
Diet? Moderation and variety.
Exercise? Moderation and variety.
Social interaction? Moderation and variety.
Etc.
The key is to make movement a regular part of your life. Mix up the movement like another commenter said.
For myself, I try to get outside and walk in the morning for about 30 minutes before work. It's a lot easier working from home than dealing with a commute, of course. I exercise 3-6 days a week also (with a mandatory rest day). I also have a walking pad treadmill thing that I pull out from time to time.
During the day I build in iron-clad breaks, including booking 30 minute out of office breaks in my schedule so I know I have protected time to get out and walk.
If I find myself with a spare moment, I do some squats. Sometimes with weights; I keep a pair of adjustable dumbbells in my office (they go up to 50 each). If I have even just 10 minutes between meetings, sometimes I will step outside for a 5 minute walk.
It's a lot of work for sure. And some days it really feels like work.
But over time if you keep it at you won't need as much discipline as you did in order to start. Think of brushing your teeth - that's a good habit most people manage to build and it's automatic for most.
Last thought - learn about yourself and your body. Try physical therapy before you need it from an injury. Try barbell lifts or other heavy weights. Try stuff you might think is "woo" like Alexander Technique or Feldenkrais. Try Crossfit. Try yoga. Try running. Try martial arts. Try dance. Try road biking. Keep trying stuff until you figure out what's for you.
Hydrate. Don't eat shit. DO NOT SMOKE! Watch your alcohol intake (or whatever else you're into). Get good sleep.
And especially if you're a man - don't kid yourself. You are not invincible and you are not immortal. You have to learn to take care of you and no-one else is going to do it for you. :)
Good luck. <3
I try and do my stand up meetings actually standing up, and .. most meetings (it's great for being more aware generally).
But the majority of the day is sitting, maybe I should get one those yoga balls to sit on.
As you walk around, hoist yourself up, do a lunge or two, and have some water handy. Make it easy on yourself to jump up and do, and you will. Most importantly, have a place to periodically close your eyes and relax. If my eyes are open and working all day, by evening, I often can't focus them. I started giving myself a just a moment every hour or so to "rest my eyes", and it's made a world of difference.
Also, either position yourself so you can look out of a window to the distance periodically or take short walks outside. Lens plasticity diminishes over time, and I was getting pounding headaches after near-focusing all day and then hopping in a car and focusing far.
Not recommending a nootropic brew, but I take 5g creatine daily. This has had the largest single impact on my routine and recovery. No more DOMS, the benefits of even brief exercise time are compounded, and I feel like a teenager after the first set of reps. And no, you won't water bloat at 5g; my face gets puffier after a bowl of pasta than taking a 15g preload and over-hydrating.
Lastly, have at least one good chair. I went from bulging discs, not being able to sit without discomfort, and persistent sciatica and neuropathy to being able to sleep through the night after getting a HM Embody (I have a congenital back deformity. Talk to your doctor, ymmv, etc). A good chair being uncomfortable is a sign your body needs to heal and regain strength - an 8-9 months process for me. You don't need a headrest; your neck will be tired only until it can support the weight of your head again. Your back will feel tired as muscles that have atrophied are re-engaged. Nothing will press on the backs of your legs and impede bloodflow, and the seat will not place strain on your prostate. Even if you're (young and) healthy and not struggling with any of this now, the damage from them is cumulative and insidious.
1) These devices do not only massage. Depending on the settings they can force incredibly powerful contractions with muscle ache the next day. This feels like a real workout.
2) Because you do not have to think about the movement it is relatively well-suited to desk work. I can easily code during the sessions (which usually take 30-50 minutes).
3) Downside is that attaching the electrodes can take 5-10 minutes.
I came to like it and will continue using it after recovery - while working!
Of course this is no substitute for actual exercise with voluntary movements.Get up, do some push-ups, pull-ups and throw in squat jumps or similar high intensity stuff to get the heart pumping!
So it turns out that people that were drinking a tiny amount of alcohol, but not enough to start seeing the endless negative affects of alcohol, were healthier than those that drunk none, but only because of this bias. The right amount of alcohol, so far as health is concerned, is zero.
It's quite insightful to see how this error then spawned a whole new series of 'approved' explanations for why wine was supposed to be healthy for you, such as antioxidants or whatever. In many fields everything remains extremely ad hoc - from brain plaque to serotonin, and I'll even add in intentional partial reps!
> It's quite insightful to see how this error then spawned a whole new series of 'approved' explanations for why wine was supposed to be healthy for you, such as antioxidants or whatever.
Your analysis provides a very nice example of how science studies can be meaningless. And that this isn't a problem, as long as someone is making money. How many years did we see yet another study being rolled out about France, red wine, red wine extracts in pill form, etc. And yet all that literature is based on a pretty obvious false assumption. That no one was inclined to correct.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1768013/
This discussion despite the failure of the "cholesterol hypothesis" (i.e., the idea that hi cholesterol causes heart disease.
Well maybe it was a paradox back then. But now there are good theories as to why cholestrol and saturated fats are not that bad. (Or even bad?)
There's another one that wasn't accounted for:
People who can afford to drink wine every day are more likely to be affluent and also able to afford better healthcare.
I just checked my local grocery store website. The cheapest wine they have is $4 for 750 mL, and $5 off if you spend $15. So you could buy 4 bottles for $12. That's still $3/L.
But ah, yeah, your point still stands. Wine can be REALLY cheap.
Though back when I worked retail, I only ever had one guy that was always buying lots of wine. The customers that came in frequently to buy alcohol typically bought 12- or 24-packs of cheap beer, though the homeless would buy 40 oz Olde English 800 or the 24 oz Steel Reserve cans.
FWIW, I live in Oregon where hard liquor has to be bought from licensed liquor stores, not grocery stores.
I usually feel more knowledgeable afterwards.
What are some good cognitive tests to take (a part from IQ tests)?
[0] https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/loneliness-linked-dementia-risk...
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On second thought, grab me another beer.
I'm too dumb to understand how that math works.
Would like to see the partial residuals plotted...
Are they over fitting their model? I cannot understand how we can look at a set of data like that, see that there are, perhaps, *maybe* some associations, and then make such serious conclusions from the stats.
1. Looking at the data, a linear regression is fit to data that looks anything but linear, calling into question the validity of the model
2. The units in some of the table are unclear, but overall it's not clear to me how much the brain shrinks in this data. As in, how significant of an effect is this? And I'm not talking about statistical significance.
3. This is correlation not causation. Maybe if your brain shrinks you can't focus long enough to move around.
- they didn’t control the effect of normal aging in older people. 7 years is a long period and by older people we can expect a decline in cognitive performance regardless of their life style. What we interest is however how much the sedentary live style contributes additionally to this decline.
- because the authors rely solely on the smartwatch data and put all kinds of movements together (sitting, walking around, laying down), we can not see whether changing posture and moving around can help.
- most importantly, they didn’t isolate and control for the amount of cognitive work. Doing cognitive demanding work is known to delaying worsening symptoms in AD and related diseases.