Exercise: A Magic Pill To Help Protect The Brain From Cellular Pathology

Julia Basso – PhD The opening statement in a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reads, “Pathology is not destiny” (Kuehn, 2015).  This statement is based off of a huge prospective study that followed 2,566 healthy, older adults (ages 65 years and up) for around 16 years.  During the study participants were

Drink and Exercise

Drink, Be Merry…and Exercise!

Julia Basso – PhD Most of us engage in a drink or two (or three…) every now and then, and ‘tis the season for a cup of holiday cheer. Unfortunately, the holiday season is “one of the most dangerous times of year for alcohol-related accidents and death,” says Dr. Drew Edwards of psychcentral.com. 16.6% of

Animal, Human, and Clinical Studies About Exercise

Julia Basso, PhD I recently returned from the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting located in San Diego, California.  The Society for Neuroscience boasts that this conference is, “the world’s largest meeting focused on scientific discovery related to the brain and nervous system.”  More than 30,300 researchers, clinicians, and advocates gathered at this meeting to discuss

Reduce Healthcare Costs

Reduce Healthcare Costs with Exercise

Julia Basso – PhD It’s that spooky time of year, and surely something’s scary…healthcare costs in the United States.  Countries around the world spend on average 9% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on health care.  From this graph, which represents the healthcare costs per capita as a percentage of the GDP, you can see

Parkinson's Disease and Exercise

Exercise To Feel, Think, and Act Like a Young Brain – Part 1

Author: Julia C. Basso, PhD Affiliation: Post-doctoral Research Associate, Center for Neural Science, New York University Gretchen Reynolds, exercise blogger for the New York Times, recently wrote a post entitled, “Does exercise help keep our brains young?”  In it, she reported on recent published research by Dr. Hideaki Soya and his group at the Laboratory

Motivation to Exercise

Get Motivation to Exercise: Rats Do It, You Can Too

Author: Julia C. Basso, PhD Affiliation: Post-doctoral Research Associate at New York University, Center for Neural Science As the holidays approach, it is sometimes difficult to find the time and motivation to work out.  There are so many things to be doing like buying gifts for kids and grandkids and getting prepared for big holiday

Improving Cognition Through Exercise - Part 2

Improving Cognition Through Exercise – Part 2

Contributed by Julia C. Basso, Post-doctoral Research Associate, New York University, Center for Neural Science Improving Cognition Through Exercise – Part 2 During the aging process, a variety of changes occurs within the brain. These changes include decreases in neurogenesis or new neuron growth, detriments in the vasculature surrounding the brain tissue, and deterioration in the