Exercising for brain health | Drs Dean & Ayesha Sherzai

In Episode #226, I’m joined by Drs Ayesha and Dean Sherzai to examine how exercise impacts brain health. We focus on two main considerations: what we know about the relationship between exercise and cognition, and how we can explain this relationship from an evolutionary lens. We discuss how movement impacts cognition, engaging your brain while exercising, and aging and brain health. We also cover neurogenesis, brain trauma, exercise and mood disorders, and motivation versus discipline.

Drs Dean and Ayesha Sherzai are no strangers to The Proof Podcast. As community favourites, we’ve previously covered topics focusing predominantly on the relationship between nutrition, neurodegenerative disease, aging, and other factors of brain health. In today’s episode, we step away from food to focus on the way exercise can impact our brain’s functioning and health.

Specifically, we discuss:

• Intro (0:00)
• Defining Exercise & Cognition (7:51)
• Studies on Exercise/ Brain Power (13:16)
• Normal vs Pathological Aging (16:34)
• Aging: What’s Possible (22:30)
• Evolution of the Brain (27:31)
• Combining Thinking & Movement (42:23)
• Improving Brain Function (50:40)
• Mild Cognitive Impairment (58:27)
• Exercise for Brain Health (1:01:05)
• VO2 max & brain health (1:09:53)
• Danger of Exercise (1:12:36)
• Can you reverse pathology? (1:24:51)
• Mood Disorders (1:29:00)
• Motivation vs Discipline (1:31:06)
• Outro (1:37:35)

To hear more from Drs Ayesha and Dean Sherzai, you can listen to their previous episodes #65, #78, #97, #117, #126, and #188. You can also head to their podcast, The Brain Health Revolution. Connect with them on Instagram @thebraindocs, and head to their website https://www.teamsherzai.com/ to discover their books and learn more.

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Enjoy, friends.

Simon

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Simon Hill, Msc, Bsc (Hons)

Creator of Theproof.com and host of The Proof with Simon Hill

Author of The Proof is in the Plants

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