Wendy Suzuki: The brain-changing benefits of exercise | TED

10,226,110 views ・ 2018-03-21

TED


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00:12
What if I told you there was something that you can do right now
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that would have an immediate, positive benefit for your brain
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including your mood and your focus?
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And what if I told you that same thing could actually last a long time
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and protect your brain from different conditions
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like depression, Alzheimer's disease or dementia.
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Would you do it?
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Yes!
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I am talking about the powerful effects of physical activity.
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Simply moving your body,
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has immediate, long-lasting and protective benefits for your brain.
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And that can last for the rest of your life.
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So what I want to do today is tell you a story
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about how I used my deep understanding of neuroscience,
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as a professor of neuroscience,
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to essentially do an experiment on myself
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in which I discovered the science underlying
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why exercise is the most transformative thing
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that you can do for your brain today.
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Now, as a neuroscientist, I know that our brains,
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that is the thing in our head right now,
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that is the most complex structure known to humankind.
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But it's one thing to talk about the brain,
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and it's another to see it.
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So here is a real preserved human brain.
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And it's going to illustrate two key areas that we are going to talk about today.
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The first is the prefrontal cortex, right behind your forehead,
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critical for things like decision-making, focus, attention and your personality.
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The second key area is located in the temporal lobe, shown right here.
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You have two temporal lobes in your brain, the right and the left,
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and deep in the temporal lobe is a key structure
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critical for your ability
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to form and retain new long-term memories for facts and events.
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And that structure is called the hippocampus.
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So I've always been fascinated with the hippocampus.
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How could it be that an event that lasts just a moment,
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say, your first kiss,
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or the moment your first child was born,
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can form a memory that has changed your brain,
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that lasts an entire lifetime?
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That's what I want to understand.
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I wanted to start and record the activity of individual brain cells
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in the hippocampus
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as subjects were forming new memories.
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And essentially try and decode how those brief bursts of electrical activity,
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which is how neurons communicate with each other,
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how those brief bursts either allowed us to form a new memory, or did not.
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But a few years ago, I did something very unusual in science.
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As a full professor of neural science,
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I decided to completely switch my research program.
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Because I encountered something that was so amazing,
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with the potential to change so many lives
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that I had to study it.
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I discovered and I experienced the brain-changing effects of exercise.
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And I did it in a completely inadvertent way.
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I was actually at the height of all the memory work that I was doing --
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data was pouring in,
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I was becoming known in my field for all of this memory work.
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And it should have been going great. It was, scientifically.
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But when I stuck my head out of my lab door,
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I noticed something.
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I had no social life.
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I spent too much time listening to those brain cells
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in a dark room, by myself.
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(Laughter)
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I didn't move my body at all.
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I had gained 25 pounds.
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And actually, it took me many years to realize it,
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I was actually miserable.
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And I shouldn't be miserable.
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And I went on a river-rafting trip -- by myself, because I had no social life.
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And I came back --
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(Laughter)
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thinking, "Oh, my God, I was the weakest person on that trip."
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And I came back with a mission.
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I said, "I'm never going to feel like the weakest person
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on a river-rafting trip again."
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And that's what made me go to the gym.
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And I focused my type-A personality
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on going to all the exercise classes at the gym.
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I tried everything.
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I went to kickbox, dance, yoga, step class,
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and at first it was really hard.
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But what I noticed is that after every sweat-inducing workout that I tried,
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I had this great mood boost and this great energy boost.
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And that's what kept me going back to the gym.
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Well, I started feeling stronger.
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I started feeling better, I even lost that 25 pounds.
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And now, fast-forward a year and a half into this regular exercise program
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and I noticed something that really made me sit up and take notice.
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I was sitting at my desk, writing a research grant,
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and a thought went through my mind
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that had never gone through my mind before.
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And that thought was,
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"Gee, grant-writing is going well today."
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And all the scientists --
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(Laughter)
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yeah, all the scientists always laugh when I say that,
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because grant-writing never goes well.
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It is so hard; you're always pulling your hair out,
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trying to come up with that million-dollar-winning idea.
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But I realized that the grant-writing was going well,
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because I was able to focus and maintain my attention
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for longer than I had before.
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And my long-term memory -- what I was studying in my own lab --
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seemed to be better in me.
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And that's when I put it together.
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Maybe all that exercise that I had included and added to my life
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was changing my brain.
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Maybe I did an experiment on myself without even knowing it.
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So as a curious neuroscientist,
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I went to the literature to see what I could find about what we knew
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about the effects of exercise on the brain.
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And what I found was an exciting and a growing literature
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that was essentially showing everything that I noticed in myself.
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Better mood, better energy, better memory, better attention.
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And the more I learned,
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the more I realized how powerful exercise was.
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Which eventually led me to the big decision
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to completely shift my research focus.
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And so now, after several years of really focusing on this question,
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I've come to the following conclusion:
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that exercise is the most transformative thing
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that you can do for your brain today
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for the following three reasons.
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Number one: it has immediate effects on your brain.
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A single workout that you do
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will immediately increase levels of neurotransmitters
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like dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline.
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That is going to increase your mood right after that workout,
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exactly what I was feeling.
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My lab showed that a single workout
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can improve your ability to shift and focus attention,
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and that focus improvement will last for at least two hours.
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And finally, studies have shown
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that a single workout will improve your reaction times
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which basically means
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that you are going to be faster at catching that cup of Starbucks
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that falls off the counter,
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which is very, very important.
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(Laughter)
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But these immediate effects are transient, they help you right after.
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What you have to do is do what I did,
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that is change your exercise regime, increase your cardiorespiratory function,
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to get the long-lasting effects.
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And these effects are long-lasting
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because exercise actually changes the brain's anatomy,
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physiology and function.
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Let's start with my favorite brain area, the hippocampus.
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The hippocampus --
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or exercise actually produces brand new brain cells,
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new brain cells in the hippocampus, that actually increase its volume,
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as well as improve your long-term memory, OK?
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And that including in you and me.
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Number two: the most common finding in neuroscience studies,
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looking at effects of long-term exercise,
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is improved attention function dependent on your prefrontal cortex.
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You not only get better focus and attention,
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but the volume of the hippocampus increases as well.
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And finally, you not only get immediate effects of mood with exercise
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but those last for a long time.
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So you get long-lasting increases in those good mood neurotransmitters.
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But really, the most transformative thing that exercise will do
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is its protective effects on your brain.
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Here you can think about the brain like a muscle.
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The more you're working out,
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the bigger and stronger your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex gets.
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Why is that important?
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Because the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus
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are the two areas that are most susceptible to neurodegenerative diseases
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and normal cognitive decline in aging.
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So with increased exercise over your lifetime,
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you're not going to cure dementia or Alzheimer's disease,
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but what you're going to do is you're going to create
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the strongest, biggest hippocampus and prefrontal cortex
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so it takes longer for these diseases to actually have an effect.
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You can think of exercise, therefore,
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as a supercharged 401K for your brain, OK?
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And it's even better, because it's free.
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So this is the point in the talk where everybody says,
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"That sounds so interesting, Wendy,
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but I really will only want to know one thing.
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And that is, just tell me the minimum amount of exercise
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I need to get all these changes."
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(Laughter)
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And so I'm going to tell you the answer to that question.
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First, good news: you don't have to become a triathlete to get these effects.
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The rule of thumb is you want to get three to four times a week exercise
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minimum 30 minutes an exercise session,
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and you want to get aerobic exercise in.
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That is, get your heart rate up.
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And the good news is, you don't have to go to the gym
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to get a very expensive gym membership.
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Add an extra walk around the block in your power walk.
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You see stairs -- take stairs.
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And power-vacuuming can be as good as the aerobics class
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that you were going to take at the gym.
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So I've gone from memory pioneer
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to exercise explorer.
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From going into the innermost workings of the brain,
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to trying to understand how exercise can improve our brain function,
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and my goal in my lab right now
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is to go beyond that rule of thumb that I just gave you --
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three to four times a week, 30 minutes.
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I want to understand the optimum exercise prescription
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for you, at your age, at your fitness level,
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for your genetic background,
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to maximize the effects of exercise today
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and also to improve your brain and protect your brain the best
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for the rest of your life.
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But it's one thing to talk about exercise, and it's another to do it.
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So I'm going to invoke my power as a certified exercise instructor,
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to ask you all to stand up.
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(Laughter)
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We're going to do just one minute of exercise.
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It's call-and-response, just do what I do, say what I say,
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and make sure you don't punch your neighbor, OK?
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Music!
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(Upbeat music)
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Five, six, seven, eight, it's right, left, right, left.
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And I say, I am strong now.
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Let's hear you.
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Audience: I am strong now.
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Wendy Suzuki: Ladies, I am Wonder Woman-strong.
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Let's hear you!
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Audience: I am Wonder Woman-strong.
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WS: New move -- uppercut, right and left.
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I am inspired now. You say it!
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Audience: I am inspired now.
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WS: Last move -- pull it down, right and left, right and left.
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I say, I am on fire now! You say it.
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Audience: I am on fire now.
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WS: And done! OK, good job!
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(Applause)
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Thank you.
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I want to leave you with one last thought.
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And that is, bringing exercise in your life
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will not only give you a happier, more protective life today,
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but it will protect your brain from incurable diseases.
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And in this way it will change the trajectory of your life
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for the better.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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