http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50109534/ns/health-mens_health/#.UMUrMZ9SQdU
New research in Belgium shows that people who live in a city
and exercise outdoors have higher levels of inflammation and lower scores on
cognitive tests than those who exercise outside in the suburbs. The study was over a 12-week period and
included fifteen participants in an urban location and nine in a rural
environment. After tests were
given to measure response time and attention span, researchers found that high
levels of air pollution in the city prevented participants from gaining
exercise-induced cognitive benefits such as brain plasticity, comprehension,
and mental health. The urban group
also had much higher blood levels of some inflammation markers, which is
believed to cause mental problems.
However, it is noted that inflammation can disappear over time, and it
is always better to exercise than to stay inactive. It is suggested to exercise in the rain/wind, to avoid rush hour, and to head to the park in order to make sure pollution isn't ruining your health.
I thought this article was interesting because it's probably not something that a lot of people typically think about when going on their routine jog. The conclusions make sense, as it is known that pollution is such a a detriment to our health. However, the article should have provided a few more details about the
study in order to back up the findings. Do you guys think exercising outdoors in a city can really make you "dumber"?
I don't think that exercising outdoors in a city can you make you "dumber" in general. Perhaps the pollution and the stress may have you feeling not up to par, and therefore cause you to do poorly on cognitive tests in comparison to how well you might have done if you were feeling better. You are likely to encounter more stress-related factors in an urban area, and therefore trigger the immune response to signal the release of inflammatory agents (ex. cytokines). According to one of the articles we read for one of our CWA's, inflammation can potentially lead to depressive symptoms. If you are suffering then you may not perform well on a cognitive test- but this doesn't mean that once you are feeling better you will not perform better!
ReplyDeleteExercise causes inflammation short term which then leads to higher fitness levels and health. Pollution can also cause inflammation due to an immune response. Unlike exercise however, pollutants do not confer any advantage whatsoever. Living in a polluted city and breathing in the air during rigorous exercise can expose you to very high levels of inflammation causing chemicals. It is not surprising that such exposure can elicit brain damage. No one in their right mind would snort exhaust fumes from a tractor. Oxygen intensive aerobic exercise should not be performed in polluted areas for this reason.
ReplyDeleteI think the previous two posts bring up very good points. I do not believe that jogging in a city can make you less intelligent. From what I understood in the article, the air pollution and stress of the city life can probably take away some of the benefits that jogging naturally gives a person. I still believe that a person is better off exercising, whether or not they get the full benefits or not. If there is something that one should take away from this article, it is that we really need to watch what we do to our environment because it is hurting us. Reading this article made me glad that Blacksburg is in a rural area.
ReplyDeleteI agree all of the comments. I don't think it's actually making the runners "dumber," but everything that is said about the pollution makes complete sense. I do like that the article gave tips on ways to make urban exercising better; though i'm not sure how many runners would like being told that they should run in the wind and rain because it's better for their health. I'm glad that the tips they gave were not just running on a treadmill instead of outside. Maybe more research in this area will help foster the development of more parks and better urban planning?
ReplyDeleteI would also like to know how they came to the conclusion that pollution was what was causing all the bad test results. This being said, pollution could definitely cause the negative effects that the article describes. I would also imagine that running in urban areas would decrease response/reaction time because runners would be used to reacting quickly to cars while crossing streets and other pedestrians on sidewalks. It would be nice to know if the researchers looked into the cause of the high inflammatory markers, because it wasn't clear from the article.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Saleena. I don't feel as if running in urban areas can make you any dumber than say those who remain sedentary but still breathe in the polluted fumes on a daily basis. The effects of pollution on the brain can adversely affect one's ability to preform on cognitive tests. Pollution in general isn;t good for anyone, everyone knows this. The fact that runner's who lived in urban areas preformed worse isn't really a surprising result. I feel like this article provided too little information and the experiment was on too small of a scale to really say anything definitive on the subject. I would be interested in seeing the results of a longer lasting study with a much larger sample size.
ReplyDelete