cubis experience demonstrations for and against her by the government. many in the us allowed, we say something must be done. what that's something is, is not entirely clear. the fact is, the u. s. has done many things against cuba for decades, namely the long standing trade embargo, maybe washington should stop trying to help the cuban people for a change. the war on drugs still did as a way to come back, a great problem. what's the wonder? it's part of the attitude of the nation, not just of north dakota, and it got to be something that you could get elected. this time, the fight against drugs took a chic told us that andrew was competing short form. this is way too dangerous for him to be doing. clearly they put him in harm's way. a rural college student does interest get shot in the head and found in

a river like that. something else had to be happening. ah, the ah, welcome to so become visionaries me sophie shevardnadze. bless its motion and motion is life and the benefits of physical activity are hard to overestimate. how exactly does it influence the working of our brain? well, i ask, when do you ok, professor of newer science and psychology at the new york university center near a science one. this is a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the new york university university center for a neuro science. when a great to have you with us, welcome to our show. thank you so much for having me. alright,

so we all know that physical activity is beneficial all around and the facts are obvious, not only on the body, but also in the mind. and whenever i feel blue, i'll go jogging and work out a little dance a little and feel better afterwards. can you explain the simple chemistry behind all this? absolutely. there is a direct cause and effect relationship or what you've just described. 2 which is, if you're not feeling good, you need, you know, a little pick me up mentally. maybe anxiety is going up. a simple walk outside can lift your spirits. why? because moving your body can literally stimulate the release of a whole what i like to call a bubble bath of nor chemicals in your brain. chemicals you've heard of, they're called doping mean serotonin, nor adrenalin. so you're literally giving your brain this bubble bath of good mood,

nor a chemical. when you move your body and that is why you feel better, you feel more energized, you feel less anxious, less depressed. and it is, if you are changing the neural chemical environment of your brain. all right, so exercise to stop the main unhappy hormones. but this, the burst of cognition come from actual exercise or from happy hormones. yeah, that's a great point. so in fact, moving your body does many different things to many different brain systems. we started with those feel good nor a chemical serotonin. and i don't mean that go up with a workout, but other things are happening. that's why i like to call it this kind of neurochemical bubble bath. it's not just the germany in the 3rd time. and there are many different kinds of growth factors that increase with as you move your body.

and it's those growth factors that start to literally change the anatomy, physiology and function of your brain. and this is the part where people, they start to say, wow, i didn't know that. i think people have a instinctive understanding that going to be taking a walk or moving your body to thank you. feel better, but moving your body literally can strengthen. it's like your brain becomes kind of a muscle with movement. you're not just strapping your biceps, triceps, you are literally strengthening the connection. you're in fact, in certain brain areas, you're actually growing a stimulating the growth of brand new brain cells in one particular area that i've studied for the last 30 years, called the hip. a campus, if a campus critical for our ability to learn and we chain new long term memory for facts and events. and if any of you out there want better long term memory

exercise, getting those regular exercise boats that increases those growth factors. that's when that's going to get you a bigger, faster your campus and a better memory. so if physical exercise literally increases the capacity of the brain and. busy therefore improves our mental state and cognitive abilities. i wonder why for instance, i don't know hockey players or, you know, football players baseball players. why don't we see them getting their ph. d. 's are getting research grants or whatever. yeah. so, you know, it's, it's not going to make a f student and a student, it is going to improve where you have to start with. and in fact, soccer or football. many of the sports, all particularly the contact sports. there is

a give and take because that trauma that comes from, well, you know, even having the ball in european football or what americans call soccer, not good, not good for your brain. so all that benefit and they are getting benefit from the regular exercise. they're getting is a little bit mitigated by, by the brain trauma that, that some of the sports players kind of expose themselves to. so again, it's not like a, a magic formula that makes everybody einstein from where you are, are you going to have a better memory are going to be more focused. and we didn't even talk about the improvement of focus and attention that is dependent on the prefrontal cortex. that is probably partially due to increases in growth factors as well. but actually that is one of the most common improvements that you see with increasing your

physical activity. you see clear improvement of your focus and attention. and that is something certainly all professional sports players really need. they have this ability to focus on for baseball players that ball coming so fast to them, even soccer players keeping track of all of the people on their team and where they are and making quick decisions about where i need to be. to get my team to score all of that is dependent on the prefrontal cortex. and in fact, we probably are seeing those benefits in those elite players that are using those kind of attention and focus skills to be you know, elite athletes, the elite athletes that they are. all right, so you're saying that the physical exercise alone is enough for boosting ones cognitive abilities, or do we still, or does it only work along with other mental exercise,

like acquiring new skills and learning new languages? right, right. so, you know, this is you're getting into my favorite topic, which is the topic of brain plasticity. what are those things that we can use to help improve our brain functions and make our brain function better? exercise is one of them. and kind of the, the wow for the exercise is the stimulation of brand new brain cells in that hipaa campus. everybody wants the better memory. and also the campus is very vulnerable to aging and neuro degenerative states. so kind of a bonus is those regular athletes that are, that are working out directly through their life or building up this campus that will literally help stave off any your degenerative disease states that come on later. why? because they're camp. i will be bigger and fatter. they've been growing, have to cancel cells all along,

but that is absolutely not the only thing that can make your brain work better. for example, sleep very, very important. people often ask me, okay, so you're telling me that i should, i should get only 5 hours of sleep and get up and do that work out because that's really important. no bad lower numbers of hours of sleep. it's very detrimental to overall brain function. so you want to do both, you want to give your brain that good 8 hours of sleep so they can go through all of its electra physiological cycle. what does that do? that is refreshing the brain that is literally clearing out all the all of the toxins that can build up overnight. and those 8 hour sleep about are, are the best thing to kind of refresh your brain. so in that state then you go work

out and give your brains that extra boost of nor trans good, good feeling, nerve transmitters and growth factors, and you get the maximum benefit out of that. and then on top of that, what did you go and learn the language? you use your brain, you use the prefrontal cortex and the hip, a campus which is also very, very beneficial. if you, if you then just, you know, you might sleep and you might exercise. and then if you watch tv all day or, or do nothing, you know, engaging your brain, that will not nearly be as, as beneficial as you use your brain. all these brain areas that you've, you've benefited from sleep and exercise, and then you use it to engage those brain areas and learn something new. what if you're watching, i don't know really useful tab lectures all day long on tv. does it count as a mental exercise or sure if you are learning something,

now we have so many different methodologies or venue to learn something new. i was thinking more of just the mind list tv, that one can watch when just one wants to, you know, unplug but yeah, absolutely. one can learn great things from ted talk from youtube videos, learning new things in any way is, is it's beneficial to the brain. one day we're going to take a short break right now when we're back. we'll continue talking to wendy suzuki, professor of newer science or psychology at the new york university center 4 year old science. stay with the the oh,

i live in an a now where the supply side of the equation is broken. nowhere entering into the supply shocks where there could be microchips, for example, or basic commodities or sharply. there's a food insecurity now by hundreds of millions of people around the world just emerging over the past 12 months because of it's runaway inflation because of the runaway money printing, as we've been thank for a few years. so now people are really coming to grips with the fact that yeah, as the reports been right about it, what she was looking for. somebody will thing a little slow, letting them go by susan. well, the girls come a little to go see me when you, when you have

a meeting in the room, initial pathetic female spelled on the one. let me know when i come for the else was gonna look down and don't. 2 talk to them. you don't wish nicholas you soon. this news was looking here when you mitchell came quickly elude. you initially connect on the, on the financial young hoody an illusion you lose. could, you could shoot that to the lower ah, the, the the,

and we're back with professor of newer science and psychology or the new york university center for neuroscience, one to suki, wendy. sports, you're saying is especially important for kids. i think it not only helps their like healthy growth, but also socialization as they learn. i don't know, competition, team work, leadership simply make friends and sport sections. so is that the actual physical activity that is providing mental benefits in this case, or are they social activity and learning to strive, fail to see all of that? that's a great question, and it's exercise is great for all the reasons that i said, but we, as humans are social animals, we have huge networks in the brain that have evolved to, to be social,

to recognize facial expressions and kind of decode, even complex social interactions in our teammates, in our schoolmates, in our workplaces. and so all of that, especially positive social interactions that, that kids can get in sports teams are some things that it's a learning, it's another learning opportunity and that together with the physical activity. absolutely. the working together to improve brain function, and i would say not just kids, it's just as important for us, 40 and 50 year olds to stay active, stay social. and we continue to reap the benefits of that long after we've we've gotten out of grade school. so how early on would you advise to introduce

your kids to sports? yeah, you know, i, my philosophy is that just from observing friends and people. it's, it's, it's creating a lifestyle that, that naturally has movements in it. pests are great. take your dog for a walk, make that part of your, of your life and so that you miss it. if you don't have it. and then instead, if you don't have a cup around, go for a walk with your friends, your sister, your brother, your mother, your father. so, so not everybody will love sports. and i think it's really important to keep an open mind into what, what constitutes physical activity. some people will love dance. some people will love just just nature walks outside, all of that can count as regular, physical activity. and i think kind of making that part of the,

of the habits of our young kids, including and schools including physical activity and or sports or other things that kids that don't like. sports can also participate in is a really important kind of strategy for government to take in regards to brain development, brain health in our kids. is there any evidence to suggest that those kids should do sports actually do better in school than those who don't? yes, there is, there are significant correlations between school performance and physical. busy participation in sports that have higher levels of physical activity. and as you were implying, the kind of it also helps because they have to learn how to manage their time in a much more challenging way than those that aren't participating in those hours long

sports practices. and still have to fit in their homework their, their writing. so they are somehow fitting that all in, by becoming more focused by becoming more organized. and what is that stimulating prefrontal cortex and your ability to shift and focus and order things in your life so. so a lot comes with with that in addition to the wonderful effects of physical activity on the brain. is there a such thing as over exercising? that is actually hurting your brain, like for instance, if you exercise, you can hurt your muscles if you would do it. no, no. so everything in brain plasticity too much sleep is bad. maybe too many blueberries are probably bad. yeah, too much exercise is bad. have we studied that? no, because it's hard to get people to exercise that much to, to make it back to,

you know, to really do damage to the brain. but just looking at that kind of oxygen consumption at high levels of physical activity. you, you know, you kind of, you get diminishing returns. and so that's not often a question i get, you know, if i join your exercise study, profession duty, what does my exercise too much and i hurt my brain. and the answer is yes. theoretically, you can get to that, but really practically, that would be a lead athletes that are pushing themselves so hard that that it becomes detrimental. and practically very few of us can get that to that level of, of activity. but theoretically, yeah, you can just like any most anything else, it is a u shaped curve. where too much is that, is there any particular type of sports that you think is better for the brain?

ellis, to sit in on a flat x team, sports mine sport to me. where does chests fit in all of this? yeah, yeah. so, you know, the thing that i have come to appreciate is that it's not one thing that physical activity is doing for the brain. it is doing many things for many different brain areas. and depending on how you structure, how you create your physical activity, you're going to get benefits in certain areas and not in other areas. so for example, the growth factors, let's say you want met to maximize growth factors so that you get as many hipaa capital cells as possible that suggests that you want to do or rubik activities that, that really get your heart rate up. so all the running and soccer track be become

a runner that will, that will get you that regular increase in aerobic activity but, but that might not give you the best move that you can get. mood improvement may come with lower levels of activity including walking. and i want to emphasize that because i don't want people coming away from this interview, say ok, well, i'm just going to have to become an olympic athlete to get those benefits. no, you can start walking, you can start walking more and start to see the benefits of, of mood booth without having to worry about becoming that elliptic level athlete. and then to go back to your comment on chess. so check, obviously has no aerobic capacity, but great strategic skills and prefrontal cortex i've used i knew it's just as my, my example for what,

what happens when you really, you know, push the prefrontal cortex. well, you can picture that whole chessboard and then be able to manipulate. what if i do that move versus that move? what, what does that want to do? and what is my opponent going to keeping all of that in mind? that chest players do so incredibly well is a huge development of the prefrontal cortex. so that practice has improved the prefrontal cortex function you are, you are, you know, engaging and improving prefrontal cortex. so let's take that back to extra sites. well, can you, what does that sport that includes both physical city and lots of strategy on maybe it could include soccer, there's a lot of strategy there, american football, all the plays that the players have to memorize and execute, you know, on a dime a lot of strategic play up there as well. so it really depends.

that's the, that's the power. and the wonder of the brain are human brain is responsive to what kind of life brings at it. so you know, you, a fear will have a different pattern of brain plasticity. positive brain plasticity, then a soccer player is one better or worse? no. but depending on those, those elements of that, that you know, that life that you're creating in sports, you're going to get those particular benefits. and you get to benefit in the way that you construct your physical activity. what is a tailored exercise for the brain? i know that you're working on something like that, right? like body builders. know, for instance, what machine to use today for a perfect try saps or whatever. should we be able to know what were teen to follow for i had become as boost or something like that. yeah, yeah,

i've been very interested in that and, and trying to come up with platforms that, that measure your particular benefit from exercise. and what i've seen is there's a lot of individual variability. where does that variability come to? i'm not saying that some people have no brain benefit and other people have maximum brain benefit. generally they all benefit, but some people have a bigger benefit from a particular workout for their mood and less or their cognitive or memory function and, and vice versa. and so that tells me that there are kind of individualized programs that one can create to work on to work on what you want to work on. so not everybody wants to have wants to work on move what maybe you're satisfied with, with your overall kind of move performance and you want to focus on prefrontal

cortex. what are you going to do? what is that particular workout that will most boost your prefrontal cortex? or your, your memory function, your hipaa capital function, and those, those are questions that scientists and, and neuroscience just can answer very, very generally at this point. and so i've been interested in trying to really make that specific and specific for individuals and even in the mood i just said, you know, you're not interested in mood. well, i think mood is particularly important these days with anxiety and depression levels. some say 30 to 40 percent higher than they were this time before the pandemic. and we know that that exercise can really be a wonderful way to address those anxiety depression feeling well, what is your best formula and what is the minimum amount of work? do you need to do to get those move benefits so that you're not feeling overwhelmed?

you can, you can use your, your own personalized formula to get that boost and then go through the day and be more productive and be more, more happy in your life. what do you see in the near future fitness specialist going through a newer science crash course so that you know, they can be able to guide their clients through a brain friendly workout? absolutely. that is part of what i am working on. i actually, i'm, i'm approaching it from the mood perspective because of what i just said, of, of the really important work that needs to be done to address anxiety and depression. i have a book coming out to timber in the united states called good anxiety. harnessing the most misunderstood emotion. and so how, what is, what are those tools?

both exercise cognitive behavioral tools that you can use to kind of change your anxiety story from one that it's just all negative. have anxiety. can you make anxiety into your superpower? so that will involve not just coaches and trainers, but like physical coaches and trainers but, but perhaps behavioral coaches and trainers to use to use these tools that neural scientists and psychologists and psychiatrists have used to really come in and use the principles of brain plasticity to to address and really nit nip it in the bud and also plan for those situations that you know, give you as id over and over and over again. well, what can you do to ship that story and flip it on

a tad and make that situation an advantage to you? that's what the book when the thank you so much for this wonderful inside and a world of fitness slash, nearer assign slash spray now was just really, really great talking to you. i'm going to taking all the advice that i've heard today and good luck with your future research. and i hope we get to do this soon again. wonderful, thank you so much for how thank you. by the the, the. when i see black america, i see myself when i was growing up like america spoke to me when white

astray did did not. you said like marsh measure is a movement we are importing from america. no, nothing. if we lived in a world where life lives mattered, and i was not why i like mission. and i wasn't normal from black america. i learned how to speak back to one of the regional people around lo, every day. now the police were at war with statistics. i'm scared that my children are going to go up in the country. that thing says no racism, but they're more likely to end up in the criminal justice system than their other fellow friends in daycare. mm cube is experienced demonstrations for and against the hub on a government. many in the us loud, we say something must be done. what that's something is,

is not entirely clear. the fact is, the u. s. has done many things against cuba for decades, namely the long standing trade embargo, maybe washington should stop trying to help the cuban people for a change. the speaking to you now just in front of a bridge that was under construction at the time local to telling me that well, construction equipment that was all not bridge was swept away as if it was nothing record floods hit germany and belgium with more than 100 dead as entire buildings are swept away, more than a 1000. people are still missing. it looks as if a bomb has to be like war wrecked streets and looted stores. south africa suffers another night of riots after the jailing of its former president. we speak to the woman who amid the chaos

through her child from a burning building to a.