Chapter 5 - Depression

Depression

Composed by: Cori Kassib

It wasn't until my early 20’s that I realized depression was real. I was brought up in a culture where you “tough it out” and things will be better before you're married. Then I came home to a boyfriend who was holding a gun to his head. His father was a secret service agent that was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing and after 9/11, all of those unresolved feelings came flooding back. I didn't know how to help or what to do and I surely didn't have any idea of what he was going through.

After this situation I spoke with people about depression and I researched how it affects the body. I realized that people can't just get over things and that there is actually a chemical imbalance in the brain. When reading Spark it now makes sense to me that not all medications work the same. Some people have more or less side effects depending on the chemical make up in their brain. Some medications may cause suicidal thoughts for one person, but never for another. WOW! This is all really crazy and confusing. So what I took from this chapter is this…..depression is a curable disease that affects millions of people. The mind, brain, and body all influence one another. So exercise makes a person feel good (the brain releases endorphins, a morphine-like substance), which means you feel good about yourself. Exercise wakes up the brain and gets it going and improves self-esteem, which is one of the components of depression. Exercise and the brain start partying! Exercise boosts dopamine, which improves mood and feelings of wellness, boosts serotonin, yet another chemical in the brain, which improves mood, impulse control and self esteem and  exercise also staves off stress by counteracting cortisol.

James Blumenthal from Duke University conducted a study in 1999 about exercise and depression. Blumenthal concluded that exercise could change the chemical make-up in the brain and could be used as a medication.

Exercise adjusts the chemistry of the entire brain to restore normal signaling. It frees up the prefrontal cortex so we can remember the good things and break out of the pessimistic patterns of depression. Moderate to vigorous activity levels are more effective in fighting depression, than low intensity activities. Some exercise is good, more is better, but what is really cool is that Ratey explains how that in some ways exercise is even more important for prevention that treatment, which makes total sense to me! Exercise is not an instant cure for depression, it shouldn't be a chore, but it should be a part of daily life, just like brushing your teeth. We only get one mind, one brain, one body and one life. Let’s fight depression with exercise, while boosting our children’s mind’s, test scores, and behaviors.

Chapter 4 - Anxiety

Anxiety

Composed by: Cori Kassib

Although I’m interested in how exercise affects our brain chemistry, I don't necessarily use BDNF, GABA, and ANP in my daily lingo. What I do know is that anxiety is an unpleasant state of inner turmoil. When a person feels anxious, they often exert nervous behaviors, such as pacing back and forth, bodily systems of tension such as butterflies in the stomach, or focusing on bad feelings and experiences from the past.

“I just! I need! I have! A red marker! And I need! A green marker! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! MOMMY HELP”

I found it interesting when Dr. Ratey shared the story of Amy and how her husband won full custody of the kids. Many people view anxiety as a illness that affects one’s ability to function on a daily basis. There is also a judgement that if people are medicated for anxiety or depression, they are “less of a person” or are seen as being weak.

When Amy quit taking her medication because she found exercise as a valid substitute the court judged her and said she did not want to get better. Ratey discovered that by using exercise to combat the symptoms of anxiety one can treat the state (of anxiety) and as your level of fitness improve, you chip away at the trait. “Over time, you teach the brain that the symptoms don't always spell doom and that you can survive; you’re reprogramming the cognitive misinterpretation.” Basically what they are saying is that exercise produces calming chemicals and if the body is calm, the brain is less likely to worry. Science show’s there is a clear connection between how much you exercise (your body) and how anxious you feel (your brain).

I love the section “Outrunning the Fear,” because it is simple and straightforward.

1. Moving (exercising) provides a distraction. You are thinking about what you are doing and not about what is making you anxious.

2. The “tranquilizing effects of exercise” reduces muscle tension by reducing the electrical patterns in their muscle spindles. The more relaxed one actually feels (no knots in your muscles or kinks in your neck) the less anxiety one feels.

3. BUILDS BRAIN RESOURCES….. scientific talk for increasing Serotonin, increasing Norepinephrine, GABA and BDNF…..aka neurotransmitter’s are firing!

4. Exercise teaches a different outcome, meaning we are giving the brain the “old switc-a-ro.” When someone is having an anxiety attack, they are experiencing an increase in heart rate and breathing becomes more difficult…..sound familiar. Yes, when we exercise the same symptoms occur, so now when people exercise they associate those symptoms as something that is controlled and positive.

5. Exercise reroutes your circuits….again more brain talk. The sympathetic nervous system is activated when exercising and it prevents a part of the brain (amygdala) from running wild and freaking out about what life is presenting.

6. Exercise improves resilience. When making a conscious effort to exercise, you are makign the decision to do something for yourself, and then you begin to realize that you CAN do something for yourself!

7. Exercise sets you free. People who suffer from anxiety feel trapped, exercise means taking action, going out and exploring, and moving through the environment.

So what does this mean for our “kids,” classroom, and ourselves? Many people and kids today suffer from anxiety. Our world is faced paced, crazy and is constantly changing. If we don’t deal with anxiety or teach our kids how to deal with anxiety than this world will eat them alive. Not coping with stress is yet another reason that these kids lifespan is less than their parents. I say, we reduce anxiety through movement and rely on the science to support you!

Chapter 3 - Stress

STRESS

Composed by: Karl Barth

How do we deal with it? Do we grab a beer or another slice of cheesecake? Hit the slopes or run up the mainsail? Stay up at night worrying? Head out for run or pound the treadmill? Maybe even some combination of all of the above (not a preferred answer if your kids don’t know that carrots have tops).

“Stress is a threat to the body’s equilibrium. It’s a challenge to react, a call to adapt. In the brain, anything that causes cellular activity is a form of stress.” This is a product of our fight or flight days and the need to hunt-gather, and stay alive in dangerous times. As a result our brain fires neurons and we react/remember, these firings cause memories of how to get food, avoid danger, and prosper as a species. Our body also adapted to store energy (fat most commonly) for energy stores that would be available when we need to fire-fight-flight and especially since we did not always know when the next energy source would be available. This was not a great concern because our ancestors had to work to find food and live so exercise was a plentiful and resolved the imbalance to our equilibrium and burned of the fat stores. “Stress and recovery….The brain activity caused by exercise generates molecular by-products that can damage cells, but under normal circumstances, repair mechanisms leave cells hardier for future challenges. Neurons get broken down and built up just like muscles – stressing them makes them more resilient. This is how exercise forces the body and mind to adapt.”

The result nowadays, however, is that we have an excess of calories compared to the scarcity of food of Paleolithic ancestors and are more sedentary (38% of the activity) and more stressed by our daily lives (think smart phones, social media, 24/7 news, and general flood of information). These days the stress response isn’t just helping forge important memories but constantly flooding our brains hormones including norepinephrine, epinephrine, cortisol, endorphins, and dopamine. These can help focus us but also lead to anxiety in many situations. The arousal we feel can fire us up, prepare us for the task, and help sharpen our focus, but at some point it turns to anxiety as we are in over our heads or there is no outlet for the buildup. Exercise is one relief valve for this and practice can help raise the threshold where anxiety kicks in. The cortisol also creates fat stores in our midsection where it is related to obesity and other health issues. Exercise also creates more insulin receptors, ANP in the heart’s muscle tissue, and a sense of control or mastery over stress and all of these help us regulate stress.

So what does all this mean in our classrooms, can use short term stress to increase learning while also controlling it to reduce long term effects? Should we eliminate it completely or encourage it on a regular basis? Can we prepare our students for more focus and learning through stress and exercise? How can you incorporate this information?

Chapter 2 - Learning

Grow Your Brain Cells

The Revolution has begun, but correlation does not equal causation so let's dive in and find out the beginning as to why exercise not only helps our brains develop, but also assists with the actual growth of our brain cells. Thats right, your brain can keep producing new cells! Who knew?!...not my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Talbott, that's for sure. So let's begin.

We do know now that our brain is flexible, or plastic, as the chapter refers to several times and we can mold it as we provide new input. It's always being rewired, as opposed to only have one pathway to execute functions (which comes up many times in future chapters). Throughout this chapter, many neurotransmitters are named and we are initially given a few right off the bat. Glutamate, GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid), serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine are listed as crucial parts to learning. Glutamate stirs up activity to begin the signaling cascade and GABA clamps down the activity of the other three (and others too I believe). Serotonin is the "policeman" as it influences mood impulsivity, anger and aggressiveness (think Prozac). Norepinephrine amplifies the signals that influence attention, perception, motivation, and arousal. Dopamine is the learning, reward, attention, and movement neurotransmitter, but has different effects depending on which region of the brain uses it (a reference to Ritalin is made).  These neurotransmitters are primarily manipulated with different medications that are produced. Exercise, especially that which is of the aerobic endurance type, causes the body to produce these neurotransmitters in various amounts (possible runner's high?), but really it's the bodies way of balancing these neurotransmitters.

So we have the messengers now, different areas that carry message to the various areas of the brain. When we exercise, and learn, but more so when our brain grows, what happens? Well there is a group  of proteins loosely referred to as factors, the main one being BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). If neurotransmitters carry out the signaling, BDNF and its associates maintain the cell circuitry - the infrastructure. Overall it improves the function of neurons, encourages its growth, and strengthens and protects them against their natural process of death. 

If you don't know already each brain cell has a few parts. The picture below really clears it up much better than I can describe.

The first article that Dr. Ratey can remember that involved exercise and BDNF was actually found in the journal Nature. It was concluded in the article that exercise caused the mice to produce BDNF (the "Miracle Grow" for the brain), especially in the hippocampus. This was such a huge connection because it gave a direct link to exercise and cognitive function! And actually this evidence was found again when it was determined that people with the least cognitive decline as they aged shared three main factors: education, self-efficacy, and exercise. As both of these topics became more popular, it was determined that BDNF was important not merely for the survival of neurons but also for their growth.

This has allowed us to come to the more common understanding that the brain is a muscle so-to-speak, and you need to use it or lose it. We can essentially produce all the BDNF we want and let our brain create new cells all day long, but if we don't apply learning (complex skill either physical or cognitive) then these neurons are not used and "fizzle out." Which is also backed up by numerous studies about an environment rich in sensory and social stimuli, even with mice. Also, if anyone is familiar with any kind of Pre-School history (as I am), this is where we got the Head Start Program that allows for sending disadvantaged children to preschool.

This is where we start to make the Body-Mind connection, albeit comes with some more hormones and scientific names. These are IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor), VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor), and FGF-2 (fibroblast growth factor). IFG-1 is released by the muscles when they need more fuel during activity and assists insulin to deliver glucose (sugar) to the cells, even in the brain! VEGF works to build capillaries in the body and the brain, and FGF-2 helps tissue grow and in the brain assists with the production of LTP (did we cover that one?). As we'll cover in later chapters, stress and depression play roles in lowering the production of these factors (foreshadowing, English I term).

So, how're those apples?! We know that exercise improves learning by optimizing your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to each other; and spurs the development of new nerve cells. But there's a catch...you can't learn difficult material while you're exercising at high intensity because blood is shunted away from the prefrontal cortex, and hampers your executive function. It's only after that our cognitive flexibility, where we can shift thinking and produce a steady flow of creative thoughts, wakes up and improves. We actually do this in our PE classes. We run twice a week for 20 to 30 minutes, very similar to a study done in Japan that determined that after 12 weeks participants were able to improve their executive function. Though a complex skill activity that demands coordination, reinforces neurogenesis and BDNF production in the cerebellum. Which is why I'm ending with this quote:

"This is why learning how to play the piano makes it easier for kids to learn math. The prefrontal cortex will co-opt the mental power of the physical skills and apply it to other situations."

Your brain is full of roads...whether you walk, run, cycle, or drive on it. But I prefer to run.

Timeline and Things you should Know

Below is the timeline that we'll follow for the book study and then some housekeeping items.

• Chapter 1 & 2 - Finish by Sept. 26th
• Chapter 3 & 4 - by Oct. 10th
• Chapter 5 & 6 - by Oct. 24th
• Chapter 7 & 8 - by Nov. 7th
• Chapter 9 & 10 - by Nov. 21st

This is essentially broken down to a chapter a week (most are around 20 to 30 pages). If other commitments to your time prevent you from reading the whole thing in detail thats okay as the entries for the blog will be comprised of a summary of the chapters.

Also, we will need to meet a few times in person (take attendance, record topic of conversation, & how long we met for), keep a journal (blog), write a final reflection paper, and revamp a lesson (or something specific to your field) to teach either at the end of this semester or in the beginning of the second. 

That's it! Sounds simple enough, but we need to make sure that we keep up in our reading. I'll be finishing Chapter 2 in the next couple of days and provide a new entry on it probably over the weekend. Bookmark this blog and keep the comments flowing!...like Mt. Rushmore. Or did I mean Niagara Falls?...I'm not sure, I teach PE not History. 

Chapter 1 - The Revolution

Chapter 1 - Welcome to the Revolution: A Case Study of Exercise and the Brain

Introducing the reader to Naperville Central High School, Neil Duncan, and his PE class was the easy part. Understanding why their heart rate is supposed to average 185 beats per minute is the hard part. 

From the chart above you can see that is just a tad over 90% for a 20 year (actually 89% for a 14 yr old). This is Zero-Hour PE and from the first introduction it is not your typical PE class, other than running the mile for no apparent reason. But they do have a reason..."They're required to stay between 80 and 90 percent of their maximum heart rate...we're trying to get them prepared to learn, through rigorous exercise." 

These students that volunteered for Zero-Hour PE will improve 17 percent in reading & comprehension, compared with a 10.7 percent improvement by students who took the standard PE classes. There was still a larger improvement by the students that had a literacy class directly after Zero-Hour PE rather than those that took it during the last period of the day. 

The "New PE", as it was decided, came from a simple start of trying to fight the obesity epidemic. In their PE classes there was simply too much inactivity! IN PE CLASS!!! So students would be graded on effort rather than solely skill...gone are the days of the Varsity star getting an A in PE, and heart rate monitors provided the irrefutable evidence. Now don't get me wrong, I still feel it's important to understand how traditional sports are played, and there is a lot to be said about the crossover of strategies in similar games. Even the New PE model didn't rule out sports for a solely fitness based type of class. But they did begin to assess students on their efforts during that sport, which leveled the playing field when it came to achieving good grades. 

This isn't only about the students' grades in PE though, what about how they ranked on standardized tests in other subjects and how being physically fit may allow them to be more successful in the traditional classroom setting. Take, for example, California's 279,000 ninth graders in 2001 compare their scores on the Fitnessgram to that of the Stanford Achievement Test. Those who scored a 6 out of 6 on the Fitnessgram ranked, on average, 67th percentile in math and 45th percentile in reading compared to the 35th percentile and 21st percentile that students averaged, who scored a 1 out of 6 on the Fitnessgram. It's a correlation that can't be ignored. Two main areas of the FitnessGram which seem to be particularly important in relation to academic performance is body mass index and aerobic fitness. I'm often reminded however that correlation does NOT equal causation and that there needs to be more proof behind the observations. So a swim-cap type of headgear unit was outfitted with electrodes to measure electrical activity in the brain, otherwise known as an EEG (electroencephalogram). Low and behold the scans revealed that fit kids had more brain activity when performing memory and processing speed tasks than those that were unfit. 

Back to Naperville though, as that is where we started. In Naperville they have taken PE to something beyond only fitness. It has been used to have a positive impact on mood, attention, self-esteem, and social skills. There is even scripted conversations students have in the freshman PE square dance unit that allow them to practice proper social skills in a controlled setting. 

If better overall fitness facilitates learning for individuals, then its hard to argue, just from reading chapter 1, that PE classes shouldn't be revised. All standards and many traditional sports and activities can still be included in the curriculum with a little modification. Bring on the revolution!...lets grow some brain cells in PE!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Summit High School Book Study of the book "SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain" by the HPHPE Department. In future blogs we will recount the timeline for the Book Study as well as specific conditions that we as a group, and individuals, will need to accomplish.

During this introductory post I think it would be beneficial to identify ourselves, the department we represent, and our ultimate goal/objective we would hope to attain by participating in this book study. Let me go first...

Colton St. Peter - Human Performance, Health, & Physical Education - I'd like to incorporate specific physical activities in my everyday PE lessons that allow all students to increase their cognitive capacity in order to facilitate learning in all areas.

How about you all give it a go...and if you'd like a little extra reading, check out the study below.