What does EXERCISE really do for you? : Blog
Laurence H. Miller, MD
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What does EXERCISE really do for you?

by Doctor Laurence H. Miller on 10/12/20

Everyone knows we absolutely need sleep to live. If someone told you they were sleeping three or four nights each week, staying up all night on those other days, you'd be shocked, extremely worried about them.  They'd be SUFFERING from SLEEP DEPRIVATION.  It would be physically and psychologically harmful.

 
But if someone gets exercise three or four days per week, it sounds like a healthy lifestyle; but that's INCORRECT.  That person is actually SUFFERING from EXERCISE DEPRIVATION.  What does that mean? How big a deal is it? How is it harmful to the person? 

First consider evolution:  Before 15,000 years ago, ALL OF OUR ANCESTORS were "hunters and gatherers" who HAD TO exercise every day of their lives as they searched for food.  The estimate is that they jogged about five miles every day or else THEY DID NOT EAT THAT DAY. 
 Not all early humans thrived under those circumstances.  As a result,  they were less likely to survive in that world and reproduce.  WE ARE DESCENDED from the people who did well living that life.  Those people would have more babies successfully and be given survival advantage because they had inherited that tendency to have exercise benefit them in the same way sleeping, eating and resting were necessary to a healthy life.  So it's logical to see that exercise would become AN INDEPENDENT NEED to live,  just as eating and sleeping are.

Most people have heard the expression: "a Runner's High".  That refers to the boost in mood that athletes may experience after extremely vigorous exercise that results in rapid respirations and heart rate that comes along with strenuous skeletal muscle activity.  What are the CHEMICAL changes in the body that cause the mind's empowerment, the calm happiness, and resilience to overcome stress and threat?  The answer goes back to the Thanksgiving turkey.  It's been known for decades that people are pleasantly drowsy after the "feast".   It's because turkey protein has a large content of the amino acid tryptophan. ( In the 1980's, people used to take tryptophan as a calming supplement; but that's a story for another essay.) When a person is "stressed", excess tryptophan is converted into another chemical that has a depressant effect when it flows in the blood thru the brain.  Kynurenine is that chemical.  An excess build up has toxic effects on your brain/mind.  But when you exercise vigorously, your skeletal muscles release an ENZYME that LOWERS the level of kynurenine in your blood.  The enzyme, kynurenine amino-transferase, converts it to another, harmless, chemical that does not penetrate the brain.  So there it is: more exercise means relief from kynurenine excess, and a better mood, with better thinking and problem solving.
But the "tune up" exercise, causing the lowering of kynurenine in the blood, should ideally be done on a DAILY BASIS, to keep your brain/mind at its best!






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