Overweight, Obesity and the Brain

Here's a really interesting connection for you.

Back in June I wrote about studies by Arthur Kramer, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of Illinois, who found that exercise increases brain volume. One way it may accomplish this is by boosting a protein in the brain called BDNF.

This study was widely reported largely because of the promise it showed for helping people improve memory, cognition and brain function. In fact, Kramer wrote at the time that their analysis showed in "unequivocal" terms that aerobic exercise improves cognition in older people.

That alone would be reason enough to want to boost brain levels of BDNF.

Now a new study shows that low levels of BDNF are associated with obesity!

The study, in the Aug 28 edition of the New England journal of Medicine noted that- based on animal studies- BDNF may help regulate calorie intake. People who- for possibly genetic reasons- have low levels of BDNF have a considerably greater risk of being overweight.

"BDNF is the critical biological link between thought, emotions, and movement" said John Ratey, MD, when I interviewed him recently. Ratey is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the author of "SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain". He calls BDNF "Miracle-Gro" for the brain.

Evidently it can also help your waistline.

The new study isn't the first time scientists have noticed a connection between obesity and BDNF. In a study published last year in the journal of Neuroscience, researchers removed the BDNF gene in two of the primary appetite regulating areas of the brains of mice. They promptly became fat mice!

Researchers were able to get the mice back to normal weight by restricting their food, the mouse equivalent of a strict diet, showing that genes aren't destiny.

But it's always easier to eat less if you aren't too hungry, and always harder to "restrict your calories" when you are!

So for those of us who aren't mice, why not boost levels of a natural compound that seems to help us not want to eat that much in the first place?

Especially when it can be done so easily with basic everyday exercise!