Specifically thinking of stuff that make your life better in the long run but all kinds of answers are welcome!

I’ve recently learnt about lifetraps and it’s made a huge positive impact on how I view myself and my relationships

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    So it’s right there in the results you quoted:

    In conclusion, this meta-analysis found no effects of exercise on total hippocampal volume, but did find that exercise interventions retained left hippocampal volume significantly more than control conditions.

    Apparently it simultaneously shrinks your right hippocampus while growing your left, for an average change of zero while the left grows?

    That’s the only way that sentence makes sense.

    • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      I read that as “the hippocampus shrinks at a rate of [x] [y]s per [z]. Exercise slows that shrinking in the left hippocampus.”

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Okay so it’s not making anything grow. Yeah that’s probably it.

        Though that is still an effect on hippocampal volume.

        Maybe they meant to say something like:

        “Overall exercise doesn’t affect hippocampal volume, except in cases the hippocampus is actively shrinking in which case it can slow down the left side” (and reading between the lines possibly on the right side with a p value a little higher than significant?)

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Agreed.

        I wonder if it would “regenerate” an atrophied or shrunken hippocampus. Like the way rest and nutrition won’t make your skin larger but it will heal missing patches of skin.

        I know I’ve seen claims from reputable sources that exercise raised BDNF levels, and that BDNF leads to hippocampal neurogenesis. I can find the sources again I’m sure if you’d like; let me know.

        But how could hippocampal neurogenesis be happening without volume change? Could it be replacing dead cells (and preventing shrinkage)? Packing neurons in more densely?