Summary: New research indicates that even when the body is unable to make ketones, a crucial power supply for thinking, exercise may help to maintain mental function. Memory and learning generally suffer when kidney function and ketone levels decline, but physical activity may also help to counteract those effects.
This suggests that exercise causes other brain-supporting mechanisms besides just power source. These findings underscore the importance of physical activity as a powerful tool for maintaining mental health, particularly in those who struggle with physiological or liver-related issues, given the rise in Alzheimer’s rates.
Important Information
- Ketones & Brain Health: When blood sugar is small, sugar helps to boost memory and cognition.
- Advantages of Physical Activity: Physical activity improved brain function perhaps when ketosis support is lacking.
- Greater Influence: Erkenntnisse may be able to assist those who have liver conditions that are more susceptible to dementia.
University of Missouri-Columbia cause
We all know that physical activity is beneficial for our bodies, but what about our minds?
Even when one of the body’s main energy sources is absent, a new study from the University of Missouri suggests that exercise plays a vital role in maintaining mental clarity.
The investigation, led by Taylor Kelty and R. Scott Rector from Mizzou, provides new insights into mental health and suggests that exercise might be able to prevent mental decline more effectively than previously believed.
This study raises an interesting possibility: May regular physical activity be the key to maintaining memory and mental performance as we age given that the number of Americans expected to create Alzheimer’s disease by 2060 is more than double?
The liver produces esters, an alternative energy source that powers the head when it runs out of sugar, when the brain needs it. These molecules help with mental memory, learning, and general mental health.
What happens, however, when the heart is unable to make plenty of them? You exercise make up for this keto deficiency?
Rector, the chairman of the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health tower, Kelty and Rector were determined to learn the truth.
The researchers examined what occurs when ketosis creation is restricted in the liver in the study. As anticipated, the outcome was a sizable drop in mental function and memory.
But then something extraordinary happened: Even with the affected ketone production, exercise also managed to change some of the mental decline.
According to Kelty, a postdoctoral fellow in Rector’s test,” we thought that exercising may not be able to overcome that impairment with fewer ketone and the mental impairments that factors.”
However, it appears that exercise is so effective that other brain-related mechanisms allow it to avoid those impairments and still receive the advantages of exercise.
Rector, who is also a professor in the School of Medicine, put emphasis on how complicated exercise can be.
This study highlights the numerous benefits of exercise on the body, even when we are unsure of its specific molecular mechanisms, Rector said.
Exercise can help address those deficiencies because it accomplishes so many other things even when we remove a single pathway.
The results are particularly encouraging for those who have liver conditions that prevent the body from producing ketones.
According to Kelty, the interdisciplinary field of liver-brain research is beginning to demonstrate that those who have severe liver dysfunction are more likely to develop dementia.
According to Kelty, “ketone production in the liver may be disrupted, which could lead to cognitive decline, which could eventually lead to dementia.”
In the long run, this study hopes to raise awareness of the impact of exercise on mental clarity and the importance of ketone production.
With all the state-of-the-art resources and interdisciplinary collaborations at Mizzou,” there’s so much we’re still uncovering,” Kelty said.” It’s exciting to think about where this research might lead us next.”
” Exercise might be a crucial component of the puzzle in preserving brain health as we get older.”
Rector, who has spent more than 20 years at Mizzou, expressed his pride in being a part of the organization that funds research like this.  ,
Rector praised Mizzou, the Division of Research, Innovation, and Impact, as well as the NextGen Precision Health initiative for their incredible support. We hope that a lot of people will benefit from our work in the long run.
The Journal of Physiology published a study entitled” endurance exercise prevents cognitive impairment brought on by compromised hepatic ketogenesis..”  ,
Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health ( NIH) and is a component of the National Institutes of Health ( NIH) Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium ( MoTrPAC ), a national research consortium that seeks to discover the molecular mechanisms by which physical activity promotes health and prevents disease.  ,
About this news article on cognitive and exercise research
Author: Brian Consiglio
Source: University of Missouri-Columbia
Contact: Brian Consiglio – University of Missouri-Columbia
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original research has been made private.
The study” Endurance exercise prevents cognitive impairment caused by compromised hepatic ketogenesis” by Taylor Kelty and colleagues. Physiological Journal
Abstract
endurance exercise prevents cognitive impairment brought on by compromised hepatic ketogenesis.
Long-term research has shown that endurance exercise is neuroprotective. It’s not clear whether these neuroprotective effects are largely mediated by hepatic ketone production.
Healthy 6-month-old female rats underwent viral knockdown of the rate-limiting enzyme in the liver that initiates the first reaction in ketogenesis, 3-hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA synthase 2, ( HMGCS2 ), to investigate the role of hepatic ketone production on brain health during exercise.
Rats were then subjected to either a bout of acute exercise or 4 weeks of chronic treadmill running ( 5 days/week ) and cognitive behavioral testing. Following exercise, ketone plasma concentration 1 ; increased.
Hepatic HMGCS2 knockdown, as confirmed by protein expression, reduced ketone plasma concentration 1 h after acute exercise and 48 h after chronic exercise. Following acute exercise, proteomic analysis and frontal cortex enrichment revealed hepatic HMGCS2 knockdown reduced markers of mitochondrial function 1 , h after.
After chronic exercise, HMGCS2 knockdown significantly reduced state 3 complex I , + , II respiration in isolated mitochondria from the frontal cortex. HMGCS2 knockdown significantly reduced spatial memory and protein markers of synaptic plasticity.
Chronic endurance exercise training helped to prevent these deficiencies. In summary, these are the first studies to demonstrate that regardless of training status, hepatic ketogenesis is necessary to maintain cognition and mitochondrial function, and that endurance exercise can overcome neuropathology brought on by insufficient hepatic ketogenesis.
These findings help us understand how the brain’s health is impacted by the mechanistic relationship between the liver and the brain.
