this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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Specifically thinking of stuff that make your life better in the long run but all kinds of answers are welcome!

I've recently learnt about lifetraps and it's made a huge positive impact on how I view myself and my relationships

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[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 110 points 1 year ago (6 children)
  • Exercise grows your hippocampus
  • So do antidepressants according to recent research
  • Small hippocampal volume is an excellent predictor of depression and anxiety
  • Exercise grows your hippocampus, in a dose-dependent way
  • Exercise grows your hippocampus
  • Exercise grows your hippocampus

This is the most important fact I have ever learned.

[–] Pratai@lemmy.ca 51 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But is there any benefit to exercise?

[–] 1984@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago

Not sure, it wasn't very clear from the comment.

[–] blanketswithsmallpox@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Excuse me what do you think is cult like about that?

[–] blanketswithsmallpox@kbin.social 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

It straight up reads like cult craziness or crazy 2 am infomercials. HEAD ON! APPLY DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD! I'm glad you've placebo'd yourself into happiness though lol.

You said Exercise grows your hippocampus in 4 different bullet points lmfao. Great, it increases size by 2%. It proves nothing about whether it affects depression in adults. In fact, the studies show they do jack shit except help memory lol.

Exercise training increased hippocampal volume by 2%, effectively reversing age-related loss in volume by 1 to 2 y.

More showing it means little to nothing:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811917309138

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2017.00085/full

The effect of aerobic exercise on hippocampal volume in patients with psychotic disorders

Four studies examined the effect of aerobic exercise on hippocampal volume in people with schizophrenia or first episode psychosis (n = 107). Aerobic exercise did not significantly increase total hippocampal volume compared to control conditions (g = 0.149, 95% CI: -0.31 to 0.60, p = 0.53, Table 2). Among the two studies which reported effects on left/right hippocampus separately, there was no evidence of effects in either region (both p > 0.1). There was also no evidence of heterogeneity or publication bias influencing these results.

The effect of aerobic exercise on hippocampal volume in other populations

Data in other populations was insufficient for pooled meta-analyses, and so results from individual trials are summarised below. Individual trials which examined effects of aerobic exercise in patients with depression (Krogh et al., 2014), mild cognitive impairment (Brinke et al., 2014) and probable Alzheimer's disease (Morris et al., 2017) all found no significant effects on total or left/right hippocampal volumes. One study examining the effects of exercise in young-to-middle-aged adults found no change in total hippocampal volume but did find a significant increase in anterior hippocampal volume following 6 weeks of aerobic exercise (Thomas et al., 2016).

Effects of exercise in relation to participant age

Meta-regression analyses were performed to examine the relationship between mean sample age and effects of exercise on hippocampal volume. No statistically significant associations of effects of exercise with sample age were found for total, right or left hippocampal volume (all p > 0.05).

In conclusion, this meta-analysis found no effects of exercise on total hippocampal volume, but did find that exercise interventions retained left hippocampal volume significantly more than control conditions. As these positive effects were also observed among the subgroup of studies of healthy older adults, the findings hold promising implications for using exercise to attenuate age-related neurological decline. Currently, the overall quality of the evidence is compromised by the fact that 10 of the 12 studies included some risk of bias, therefore more high-quality RCTs are now required. In additional to RCTs, a prospective meta-analysis examining how changes in physical activity and fitness predict hippocampal retention/deterioration across the lifespan would provide novel insights into longer-term neural effects of exercise, while also reducing the impact of methodological heterogeneity often found across exercise RCTs. Further research is also required to determine effects in younger people (Riggs et al., 2016), and establish the neurobiological mechanisms through which exercise exerts these effects, in order to design optimal exercise programs for producing neurocognitive enhancements. However, the functional relevance of structural improvements has also yet to be ascertained. Nonetheless, the link between cardiorespiratory fitness with both structural and performance increases indicates this as a suitable target for aerobic training programs to improve brain health.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So it’s right there in the results you quoted:

In conclusion, this meta-analysis found no effects of exercise on total hippocampal volume, but did find that exercise interventions retained left hippocampal volume significantly more than control conditions.

Apparently it simultaneously shrinks your right hippocampus while growing your left, for an average change of zero while the left grows?

That’s the only way that sentence makes sense.

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I read that as “the hippocampus shrinks at a rate of [x] [y]s per [z]. Exercise slows that shrinking in the left hippocampus.”

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Agreed.

I wonder if it would “regenerate” an atrophied or shrunken hippocampus. Like the way rest and nutrition won’t make your skin larger but it will heal missing patches of skin.

I know I’ve seen claims from reputable sources that exercise raised BDNF levels, and that BDNF leads to hippocampal neurogenesis. I can find the sources again I’m sure if you’d like; let me know.

But how could hippocampal neurogenesis be happening without volume change? Could it be replacing dead cells (and preventing shrinkage)? Packing neurons in more densely?

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Okay so it’s not making anything grow. Yeah that’s probably it.

Though that is still an effect on hippocampal volume.

Maybe they meant to say something like:

“Overall exercise doesn’t affect hippocampal volume, except in cases the hippocampus is actively shrinking in which case it can slow down the left side” (and reading between the lines possibly on the right side with a p value a little higher than significant?)

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Oh you noticed the repetition did you?

[–] chahk@beehaw.org 12 points 1 year ago

So hang on. Are you trying to tell me that exercise grows the hippocampus?

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What do you mean by "in a dose dependent way"?

[–] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago

I think it means more exercise leads to more growth.

[–] Nonameuser678@aussie.zone 9 points 1 year ago

So does meditation according to my psychiatrist

[–] CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Apparently it also increases the feeling of needing to repeat yourself 🤔