Exercise? Good for you?

Groundbreaking.

Breaking news: exercise is good for you. 

Who knew, right? 

The other day I was scrolling through Twitter and I found this tweet from Max Lugavere, a health and wellness best-selling author. 

Max Lugavere @maxlugavere

In a new paper in Nature, scientists looked at candidates for reversing dysregulated gene expression in Alzheimer's disease and guess what outperformed all tested drugs? Exercise. Why isn't this front page news?

The study uses a bunch of jargon and made up words. Like, what in the world does “upregulated” mean? But if you get past all that, you’ll notice that the word “exercise” was used 130 times. 

And the researchers found that this primitive practice of physical exertion actually outperformed antidepressants, namely Prozac, when it came to treating Alzheimer’s.

Out of all the treatments these people studied, exercise came up as the top three. Here are the top 25 treatments for men, listed from best to worst. For the full chart, which includes the top 25 treatments for women in a separate column, click here.

1. Exercise

2. Exercise

3. Exercise

4. Fluoxetine (Prozac)

5. Curcumin (the plant chemical from turmeric)

6. Safflower oil

7. Desipramine (Norpramin, another antidepressant) 

8. D-serine (an amino acid found in the brain) 

9. D-serine

10. Fluoxetine

11. Permethrin (anti-parasite, used to treat head lice and scabies) 

12. Fluoxetine

13. Fluoxetine-c ( the “c” is for composite)

14. Exercise

15. Cocaine (huh?)

16. Cocaine

17. Exercise

18. Amphetamine (again, what?)

19. Chlorpyrifos (an insecticide) 

20. Fluoxetine 

21. Cocaine

22. Deltamethrin (another insecticide) 

23. D-serine

24. Imipramine (antidepressant, also used for nerve pain)

25. Desipramine (same as above)

What a list, eh?

I’m sure there are nuances involved in why these chemicals and drugs were tested. I also know there are certain methodologies. It’s not like they had some Alzheimer’s patients come to the lab to be hooked up to an IV drip of cocaine while running on a treadmill. That sounds illegal on many levels. The study says most treatment studies were done on rodents.

I’m also not entirely clear on why certain treatments showed up multiple times on that list. From my rudimentary understanding, the researchers studied different “AD portraits.” In other words, various subsets of Alzheimer’s.

From the study’s abstract: 

“Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder that affects multiple brain regions and is difficult to treat. In this study we used 22 AD large-scale gene expression datasets to identify a consistent underlying portrait of AD gene expression across multiple brain regions.” 

Interestingly, they don’t specify what kind of exercise was most helpful in treating the disease. Though I can surmise it’s likely cardio. I can only imagine the difficulty in getting a mouse to lift weights or do yoga.

If you’re reading this newsletter, you ride bikes (or like the idea of riding bikes), and — because you’re a cycopath — this study doesn’t surprise you. I mean, there’s the physical benefit of cycling, sure. But there’s a myriad of mental benefits too. Riding a bike isn’t just pointing it in the right direction and hammering as hard as your legs can push. There’s a mental sharpness required when on the road. You gotta make sure that guy barreling down the back road who just dropped a fry out of his mouth doesn’t swerve into your lane as he fishes for it with his greasy fingers. 

And mountain biking? Well, you gotta make sure that tree just beyond the downhill switchback doesn’t clothesline you clear off the saddle. BMX? The amount of skill required to make BMXing look the way Dave Mirra (RIP) made it look … well. Yeah.

Going on a bike ride is like working out at the gym while also writing a novel. The physical and mental gears are working simultaneously. 

But what about the social benefits, too? Being part of a bike club provides community, where iron sharpens iron — if I may borrow the metaphor from the Good Book.

And these days, younger people on bikes are learning all the lessons they learn from being involved in organized sports, thanks to the National Interscholastic Cycling Association. Listening to instruction. Responsibility. Perseverance. Respect. Handling fear and failure, etc. etc. 

I know I’m preaching to the choir. 

I just wish these sorts of studies made it into the mainstream media, and then onto the desk of health care policy makers. I’m not saying government is the only answer here. (Actually, I’m starting to think less government involvement is the answer to many societal issues.)

But government already plays a significant role in how we receive and pay for our health care. So what if government incentivized exercise, and just overall wellbeing? What if companies, as part of their health coverage packages, offered free gym memberships and little financial incentives for actually using the gym? 

Before you scoff, there are companies giving this model a try. I know it’s a bit outlandish to think this will ever happen on as large a scale as the U.S. friggin’ government. Why? Money. It’s much more lucrative to invent a pill that treats or cures Alzheimer’s disease than it is to say, “go do physical exertion at your favorite gym,” or “go ride a bike.”

And … well

, before I get too ranty, I might need to end it here.

Here’s the point of all of this. Chemicals and drugs have done a lot of good. But they haven’t done nearly as much toward promoting wellbeing than a metal frame attached to two spinning wheels. Or a good pair of running shoes.

So go ride a bike, dammit. Or do whatever form of primitive physical exertion you prefer.