Hard Exercise Can Boost Brain Chemicals Sapped by Depression

A new imaging study shows that intense exercise boosts two critical neurotransmitters — glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) — resulting in better mental fitness.

Published in The Journal of Neuroscience, the study’s findings offer new insights into why exercise could become an important part of treating depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders linked with deficiencies in neurotransmitters, which drive communications between the brain cells that regulate physical and emotional health.

“Major depressive disorder is often characterized by depleted glutamate and GABA, which return to normal when mental health is restored,” said lead author Dr. Richard Maddock, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California Davis Health System.

“Our study shows that exercise activates the metabolic pathway that replenishes these neurotransmitters.”

The research also helps solve a question about the brain, an energy-intensive organ that consumes a lot of fuel in the form of glucose and other carbohydrates during exercise, the researcher notes.

“From a metabolic standpoint, vigorous exercise is the most demanding activity the brain encounters, much more intense than calculus or chess, but nobody knows what happens with all that energy,” Maddock said. “Apparently, one of the things it’s doing is making more neurotransmitters.”

To understand how exercise affects the brain, the team studied 38 healthy volunteers. Participants exercised on a stationary bicycle, reaching around 85 percent of their predicted maximum heart rate.

To measure glutamate and GABA, the researchers conducted a series of imaging studies using a powerful 3-tesla MRI to detect nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, which can identify several compounds based on the magnetic behavior of hydrogen atoms in molecules.

The researchers measured GABA and glutamate levels in two different parts of the brain immediately before and after three vigorous exercise sessions lasting between eight and 20 minutes. They also made similar measurements for a control group that did not exercise.

They found that glutamate or GABA levels increased in the participants who exercised, but not among the non-exercisers.

Significant increases were found in the visual cortex, which processes visual information, and the anterior cingulate cortex, which helps regulate heart rate, some cognitive functions, and emotion.

While these gains trailed off over time, there was some evidence of longer-lasting effects, the researchers reported.

“There was a correlation between the resting levels of glutamate in the brain and how much people exercised during the preceding week,” Maddock said. “It’s preliminary information, but it’s very encouraging.”

The findings point to the possibility that exercise could be used as an alternative therapy for depression, he added. This could be especially important for patients under age 25, who sometimes have more side effects from selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), anti-depressant medications that adjust neurotransmitter levels.

For follow-up studies, Maddock and the research team hope to test whether a less-intense activity, such as walking, offers similar brain benefits. They would also like to use their exercise-plus-imaging method on a study of patients with depression to determine the types of exercise that offer the greatest benefit.

“We are offering another view on why regular physical activity may be important to prevent or treat depression,” Maddock said.

“Not every depressed person who exercises will improve, but many will. It’s possible that we can help identify the patients who would most benefit from an exercise prescription.”

Source: University of California, Davis Health System

How to Protect Yourself from a Heart attack -- the Most Common Cause of Death

All over the world, the most common cause of death is a heart attack. A heart attack takes the life of more than 1.5 million people each year in the U.S. alone! Such suffering affects people primarily in the most productive time of their lives, between the ages of 35 and 65 years. This can be avoided by paying close attention to certain risk factors, which contribute greatly to suffering a heart attack. 

The following are among the most important risk factors that could possibly cause a heart attack (and an immediate or sudden death 50 percent of the time):

1. -         Recent studies published in Finland showed that single women and men, and people who live alone, have a 60 to 70 percent greater risk of heart attack,  these groups have more than 160 percent greater risk of a related sudden death than those who are married or live with family. 
2. -         The only risk factor we cannot do anything about is our family history. None of us has the ability to choose our parents or our genes.
3. Smoking -- simply stop smoking.
4. Have high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol? Visit your doctor at least every three months to make sure these risk factors are under strict control. This will reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack or a related sudden death as much as possible
5. Making a lifestyle change to include a healthy diet and daily exercise requires effort and planning. Start this radical lifestyle change today for the sake of being healthy and living a better and more productive life for many years to come.
6. If you do not have any of these risk factors or do not know your state of health, it's important to see your doctor at least once a year. 
7. In the meantime, keep an eye open for the symptoms that can be a sign of an imminent heart attack: chest pain, jaw pain, shoulder or arm pain, back pain between the shoulders, feeling of pressure in the chest, difficulty breathing, feeling of indigestion, rapid heart beat, cold sweats and nausea. 
8.        Among the elderly, the symptoms may be unusual and could take the form of dizziness and fainting spells as well.

In summary, if you wish to avoid a heart attack and sudden or immediate death, see your doctor regularly and follow this advise:

1. Avoid smoking.

2. Eat a healthy and balanced diet.

3. Do at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise every day.

4. Consult your doctor about your blood sugar, cholesterol levels and high blood pressure numbers.

5. Take your medications as prescribed.

6. Stay in close contact with your loved ones. 

Juan A. Escarfuller, MD, is a cardiologist and Director of Outreach at the Montefiore Einstein Center for Heart and Vascular Care and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiology and nuclear cardiology.

Why men often die earlier than women

Women live longer than men, in fact, 57% of all those ages 65 and older are female. By age 85, 67% are women. The average lifespan is about 5 years longer for women than men in the U.S., and about 7 years longer worldwide.

It’s not hard to see the gender gap among the elderly. A glance around most nursing homes or assisted living facilities in the U.S. often tells the story: women will usually outnumber men, and the magnitude of the difference is often striking. I’m also told that when a man moves into a residential setting dominated by the geriatric set, he tends to be popular; and that’s especially true if he still drives.

Advertisers know this as well. I recently saw an ad for an organization called “A Place for Mom” that helps families find assisted living or other services for senior citizens. And while they help men as well as women, the name of the company reflects how much bigger the elderly female market is.

So why do men, on average, die first?

There are many reasons why the ratio of men to women (which is roughly equal in young adulthood) starts to favor women over time. This is because men tend to

• take bigger risks. Some of the reason seems to be “biological destiny.” The frontal lobe of the brain — the part that controls judgment and consideration of an action’s consequences — develops more slowly in boys and young men than in their female counterparts. This likely contributes to the fact that far more boys and men die in accidents or due to violence than girls and women. Examples include biking, driving drunk, and homicide. This tendency toward lack of judgment and consideration of consequences may also contribute to detrimental lifestyle decisions among young men, such as smoking or drinking to excess.
• have more dangerous jobs. Men far outnumber women in some of the riskiest occupations, including military combat, firefighting, and working at construction sites.
• die of heart disease more often and at a younger age. In fact, men are 50% more likely than women to die of heart disease. The fact that men have lower estrogen levels than women may be part of the reason. But medical risks, such as poorly treated high blood pressure or unfavorable cholesterol levels, may contribute as well.
• be larger than women. Across many species, larger animals tend to die younger than smaller ones. Although the magnitude of this effect is uncertain in humans, it tends to work against male longevity.
• commit suicide more often than women. This is true despite the fact that depression is considered more common among women and women make more (non-fatal) suicide attempts. Some attribute this to the tendency for men to avoid seeking care for depression and the cultural norms that discourage men from seeking help for mental illness.
• be less socially connected. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, people with fewer and weaker social connections (including men) tend to have higher death rates.
• avoid doctors. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, men are far more likely to skip routine health screens and far less likely than women to have seen a doctor of any kind during the previous year.

The uneven playing field for boys starts early. The Y chromosome tends to develop mutations more often than X chromosomes and the lack of a second X chromosome in men means that X-linked abnormalities among boys are not “masked” by a second, normal version. Survival in the womb is also less reliable for male fetuses (for uncertain, and probably multiple, reasons). Developmental disorders are also more common among boys; some of these could shorten life expectancy.

What we can do to help men live longer

While there’s not much that can be done about some of these factors, others are modifiable. For example, since men tend to avoid medical care far more often than women, getting men to report symptoms (including depression) and go for regular follow-up for chronic medical problems (such as high blood pressure) could counter some of the tendency for them to die younger.

It’s also worth noting that the survival gap between men and women reflects an average tendency among large numbers of people. In fact, plenty of wives predecease their husbands. Individual risk factors (such as smoking, diabetes, or a strong family history of breast cancer) can outweigh the general tendency for women to live longer.

Perhaps we’ll be more successful in the future in avoiding preventable, premature death among men (and women) — and, because many of these efforts will have a bigger impact on men, the gender gap among the elderly may eventually narrow.

Article courtesy of Robert Shmerling M.D., Faculty Editor, Harvard Health Publications

Facebook launches tool to offer support to users at risk of suicide

The suicide prevention tool lets users flag posts from friends that cause concern and leads to help options sent to those deemed to be struggling. Facebook has launched a new feature in the UK to offer support to users at risk of taking their own lives.

The social network developed the Suicide Prevention tool with support from the Samaritans charity. The tool works by asking users to flag and report posts from friends that cause concern. These posts will then be reviewed by a special team at Facebook, with help options sent to those the reviewers deem to be struggling. 

A message appears when the person in question next logs in that reads: “Hi, a friend thinks you might be going through something difficult and asked us to look at your recent post.” The user can then choose to talk to someone – either a friend or helpline worker, or be sent tips and support directly. There is also an option to ignore the offers altogether. 

Face book’s safety policy manager in the UK, Julie de Bailliencourt, said: “Keeping the Facebook community safe is our most important responsibility. “We worked with organisations including Samaritans to develop these tools, and one of the first things they told us was how much connecting with people who care can help those who are struggling to cope – whether offline or online. 

“People use Facebook to connect with friends and family, and that’s why we’re evolving the support, resources and advice available to people who are in distress and their concerned friends and family members.”According to the social network, more than half the UK’s population is on Facebook (36 million), and this reach makes it a powerful resource. 

Article courtesy of mental health news