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Good morning! We hope you had a nice weekend and are ready to dig into exercise!
Choose your track below: Beginner or Intermediate! If your exercise mini resolution has you considering a gym membership, keep in mind that certain insurances may provide coverage or financial assistance with gym membership dues. It's certainly worth calling your insurance carrier to see what is available to you! For questions or assistance, email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele McCambridge: [email protected] CHOOSE YOUR TRACK: Select your tailored track below! Which one best suits you? STARTING A NEW ROUTINE: OPTIMIZING MY EXISTING ROUTINE:
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Good morning and welcome to a new mini resolution: Exercise! Over the next five weeks, we will share research-backed insights on how exercise impacts the brain, along with a tailored mini resolution log and tips based on your experience level. In each email, you’ll be invited to choose between:
Read on for information about exercise, inactivity and cognitive decline, and click into your track below! For questions or assistance, email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele McCambridge: [email protected] CHOOSE YOUR TRACK: Select your tailored track below! Which one best suits you?
EXERCISE, INACTIVITY AND COGNITIVE DECLINE It is rare we have universal agreement among researchers and clinicians about anything! But when it comes to the positive impacts exercise has on cognitive health, researchers and clinicians agree that, as of this writing, the evidence is irrefutable: exercise produces changes in the structure and physiology of the brain to improve cognitive function in one or more domains and can also decelerate cognitive decline. The degree of impact to the individual in epidemiological, observational and interventional studies varies based on several variables, such as the exercise intensity and modality; the age, genetic susceptibility and biological sex of the participant; and the degree of cognitive impairment already experienced (or not). Importantly, research has shown that it’s never too late in life to exercise for brain health. In a prospective cohort study of Framingham Heart Study participants, those who were physically active in mid/late life had a 41-45% lower risk of developing dementia, irrespective of early adult physical activity. This is particularly important for midlife women experiencing perimenopause, which produces structural and functional changes to the brain that can affect cognition and increase the lifetime risk for dementia. Conversely, being sedentary (uninterrupted sitting for 5-6 or more hours a day) reduces cognitive function and increases one’s risk of cognitive decline. One study identified a 31% increased risk of dementia in a group of sedentary TV viewers vs. those who were not sedentary. But for those of you in Track 2, consider this – planned, intentional exercise may not be enough to attenuate sedentary behavior; i.e., a one-hour workout may not be enough to stave off cognitive decline if the rest of the day is spent sitting. People who are fit but sit are defined as “active couch potatoes.” Thus, it is important to exercise and interrupt prolonged periods of sitting by standing, walking about or even with “exercise snacks.” Don’t worry, we have it all covered in the next few weeks! DIRECT AND INDIRECT IMPACTS Now let’s look at how exercise directly and indirectly impacts the brain. DIRECT benefits of exercise to the brain: Myokines: These signaling molecules are secreted by muscles in response to movement which create adaptive responses in the body. Many cross the blood brain barrier influencing the brain directly, known as muscle-brain cross talk. Because myokines are secreted by muscles, it is important to maintain muscle mass with age and to avoid sarcopenia, in particular. Some myokines reduce inflammation, others improve glucose and lipid metabolism, but the best known myokine is BDNF - Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor. BDNF stimulates neuroplasticity. In other words, it encourages the brain to reorganize its structure and function to protect existing neurons and to grow new neurons. More neurons and reorganized structures equate to better communication between neurons. This occurs in most areas of the brain but primarily in the hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with learning and memory. BDNF is considered Miracle Grow for the brain! Blood flow: It is well-established that what is good for your heart is good for your brain! One cardiovascular benefit of exercise is its ability to prevent arterial stiffness and improve blood flow. Likewise, there is a correlation between cerebral arterial stiffness/reduced cerebral blood flow and MCI and dementia. Blood brings with it vital oxygen and nutrients (including antioxidants which combat inflammation and growth factors which promote neurogenesis!) for your neurons. A lack of either can injure your neurons or prevent their repair. Injured neurons cannot communicate with one another effectively. Exercise induces increased blood flow to the brain and prevents stiffening of the arteries in the brain, just like in the heart. (Fun fact: Our brains receive on average the equivalent of about 3 soda cans of blood per minute!) Brain size: People who exercise not only have larger muscles but also larger brains! The hippocampus (the part of the brain associated with memory and learning) can experience age-related atrophy. Exercise has been shown to both stave off and even reverse this shrinkage. Exercise also adds volume to the pre-frontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for executive function, one of the 6 domains of cognition. It is considered "the management system for the brain.” Blood sugar management: We all know how important exercise is to managing levels of sugar in the blood. Physical activity "uses up" blood sugar and makes your body more insulin sensitive. Poorly controlled blood sugar increases ones risk of dementia by increasing inflammation, reducing cerebral blood flow, damaging blood vessels in the brain and ultimately leading to neuronal death. Alzheimer’s Disease has even been referenced in the literature as “Type 3 Diabetes.” We’ll have a future Brain Brawn mini resolution to remove added sugars from the diet. INDIRECT benefits of exercise to the brain: Sleep: People who exercise tend to sleep better than those who do not exercise. You may recall from our resolution to “Sleep Better” that exercise increases the production of a neurotransmitter called adenosine, which builds the pressure for sleep. Thus, exercisers are tired at the end of the day, falling asleep faster (latency) and staying asleep through the night (quality). Sleep has a potent impact on the brain. It flushes the brain of toxins which can accumulate as a result of normal biophysical activities during waking hours. Here is the link to the 2/2/2026 edition exploring the importance of sleep to cognitive health. Stress/Anxiety: People who exercise tend to manage their stress and anxiety better than those who do not. While exercise can be stimulating via the neurotransmitters produced (we have all heard of a "runner's high"), it can also reduce stress, anxiety and depression and improve self-confidence. This is partly because people who exercise sleep better and those who sleep better manage their emotional response to stressful situations better. It is also due to an improved ability to physiologically respond to the chemicals produced by stress. We will have a future Brain Brawn mini resolution focused on reducing stress. That’s all for now. See you next week! Good morning and welcome to the FINAL week of our SLEEP BETTER mini resolution!
We hope you’re still trying one of our curated sleep tips each week and tracking the hours spent in bed each night. We couldn’t conclude this mini resolution without addressing trends and miscellaneous tidbits of interesting information surrounding sleep. Today, we’re talking about short sleep genes, sleeping pills and coffee naps! CCP helps you stay on track! Use our log to to track your progress toward our mini resolution. This month, we encourage you to try one sleep tip per week. Log which tip you selected and the result(s) you experienced. For questions or assistance, email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele McCambridge: [email protected] But first… to recap our Sleep Better Mini Resolution: We reviewed the critical nature of sleep to brain health as it relates to preventing cognitive decline and staving off neurodegenerative disease. We addressed these multi-layered concepts: the need to fall asleep with relative ease, defined as sleep latency, which is influenced by sleep pressure (the importance of staying asleep for most of the night) to complete sleep cycles within our sleep architecture (defined as sleep quality). Both prior points influence sleep efficiency (time in bed vs. time spent sleeping) to avoid sleep debt (the difference between hours of sleep needed and hours slept). We did a deep dive on the Circadian Rhythm (CR)—the body’s biological clock overseeing sleep, behavior, hormone levels, body temperature, digestion and metabolism. The primary driver of the CR is exposure to the right light at the right times and can be supported by eating within a time restricted window of daylight hours. To achieve all the above, we provided a list of tips and suggested trying at least one a week to determine if it might influence your sleep quality. Now onto sleep trends and tidbits… Short Sleep Genes Can you imagine sleeping only 4-6 hours a night and waking up feeling refreshed, without suffering the negative physiological consequences of sleep debt? It is estimated that only 3% of the human population encodes for one of the known three “short sleep” gene mutations (DEC2, ADRB1 and NPSR1, plus SIK3, which is found only in women). In addition to not requiring sleep to feel refreshed, short sleepers have been found to have Type A personalities—driven, ambitious, positive, outgoing and optimistic Polyphasic Sleep Historians believe that monophasic sleeping (sleeping in a single block of time) didn’t become the norm until the 17th century. That notion combined with erratic schedules and the need for productivity have led to a trend called polyphasic sleep whereby sleep is broken up into bursts over the course of the day (think single sleep cycles spread out over the course of the day)—much like an infant or animals in the wild. While this trend has many proponents, scientists agree the current research on groups of people who inadvertently follow this style of sleep because of their chosen careers (shift-workers, healthcare workers, emergency responders, etc.) is compelling enough to advise against this style of sleep. Sleeping Pills Oftentimes when people report difficulty falling asleep, they resort to sleeping pills. However, plainly and simply, sleeping pills are a crutch, allowing the user to mask a deeper physiological or psychological problem as the source of their difficulty falling asleep. Ironically, sleeping pills don’t actually provide people with more or deeper sleep. The net gain in sleep, depending on the brand of sleeping pill, is roughly 20 minutes. In actuality, sleeping pills provide sleep amnesia, where the individual forgets they haven’t slept. Sleeping pills can lead to “parasomnias,” whereby people walk, drive, eat, and do other activities while sleeping—all of which can be very dangerous. Sleeping pills also interact adversely with a long list of over the counter or prescribed medications. Moreover, reliance on sleeping pills is not without long-term health consequences, such as memory problems, depression, hypertension, hormonal fluctuations and weight gain, just to name a few. You may recall from week one that one study places the risk of developing dementia for sleeping pill users at 80%—so high that sleeping pill use is under consideration as a modifiable risk factor for dementia. Worse yet, sleeping pills generally don’t fix the underlying cause of sleeplessness, and rebound insomnia is usually inevitable. It is a good idea to have a chat with your concierge physician if you are using sleeping pills more than just a few times a year. Dreams As discussed, we really don’t know why we sleep. We just know we need to catch those Zzz's to stay alive and healthy. Unfortunately, we know even less about why we dream! There are more theories in existence about why we dream than we can count. We wanted to re-share this interesting piece of trivia about dreams: Dreaming occurs during the REM stage of sleep and is also called “paradoxical sleep” because the brain is very active, but the body is essentially paralyzed. Why is that? Probably so you don’t act out your dreams and injure yourself or others! Alternative Napping Stress/Fear Naps Most people tend to find sleep difficult when under stress. However, there is a small subset of the population that fall asleep when stressed. Scientists don’t completely understand these “fear naps,” but if this is you, we wanted you to know you are not alone! Coffee Naps Taking a long road trip? Staying up late to study? Enter the coffee nap! It takes roughly 20 minutes for the caffeine in coffee to kick in and get us going. So, the coffee nap process is to have a cup of coffee, lay down for twenty minutes, and then awaken refreshed and ready to go! That’s all on our Sleep Better mini resolution for now. We hope you maintain your better sleep practices and continue to get good rest for the long haul! Feel free to contact us with any feedback or for assistance! Welcome to a Special Edition of Motivated Mondays: Spring Forward into Better Sleep! Today, we’ll explore just how the Daylight Savings Time change impacts our health and what we can do to prep our bodies
CCP helps you stay on track! Continue to use our log to to track your progress toward our mini resolution. This month, we encourage you to try one sleep tip per week. Log which tip you selected and the result(s) you experienced. For questions or assistance, email your Motivated Mondays Coach Michele McCambridge: [email protected] Spring Forward into Better Sleep Each year, we “spring forward” into Daylight Saving Time (DST) on the second Sunday in March (March 8, 2026) and “fall back” to Standard Time on the first Sunday in November (November 1, 2026). While the extra evening daylight was originally intended to conserve energy, research has since identified several potential adverse health effects associated with the time change. For a variety of reasons, many experts believe we should eliminate the twice-yearly time change and stick with one standard year-round—either permanent Daylight Savings Time or permanent Standard Time. Most scientists agree the latter is best, as Standard Time is well-established to be more aligned with our primitive CR. But for now, no such changes have been made, and we’ll be switching to Daylight Saving Time next weekend. Hopefully our Sleep Better mini resolution has you ahead of the game, feeling well-rested and ready for the shift! Daylight Savings & Our Health Beyond an already sleep-deprived society losing yet another hour of sleep, what is the reason DST can be disruptive to our health? You may recall from previous discussions that the Circadian Rhythm (CR) is the body’s master biological clock regulating sleep, behavior, hormone levels, body temperature, digestion and metabolism. Remember too that almost every cell in your body has its own CR. The primary driver of the CR is our exposure to lightness and darkness. For optimal functioning, our CR requires exposure to bright light during the day which keeps us alert and reduced amounts of light in the evening to induce drowsiness to get a good night’s rest. However, the opposite happens after DST when it is darker in the morning and lighter in the evening, and your body’s natural CR becomes misaligned with the clock. A misaligned CR will leave you groggy in the morning hours and alert before bed—much like jet lag if you travel West to East. What’s more, a misaligned CR will interfere with your sleep patterns AND disrupt the appropriate timing of the release of hormones which impact hunger/satiety, mood, immunity, and metabolism. The following stats have also been observed in the window of time shortly after DST:
Preparing for DST Rest assured (pun intended!) we can start priming our bodies now ahead of the impending time change. Many of these are repeat tips from the past few weeks. Sleep & Play Starting tomorrow night, you may try going to bed 15 minutes earlier each evening than the night before until the change happens. This will make that initial hour-long loss of sleep less challenging. To avoid a bad cycle of not sleeping and trying to catch up on sleep and then not sleeping again, limit any naps to 20 minutes in duration next Sunday and Monday. Keep a regular exercise routine, but avoid it close to bedtime when it might interfere with sleep. Consider a lighter schedule that Sunday, 3/8, and Monday, 3/9, to allow your body to adjust. Daylight, Daylight, Daylight! From the time you rise until just after dinner, get as much exposure to daylight as possible. If it’s dark when you rise, try a sunrise alarm clock or head to the window with your AM cup of java, look outside for a few moments. Allow your eyes to be exposed to natural light, even if isn’t quite bright enough yet (be sure never to look directly into the sun). If you work at desk, whether at home or in the office, try sitting near a window, if possible, consider desktop light therapy, and walk outside after eating lunch! The former is a powerful biohack that we will keep repeating all year long! It is invaluable as a mental health break, as it manages post-prandial blood glucose and helps you sleep better at night by syncing your CR. What What You Consume In conjunction with your concierge physician, consider eating within a time restricted window during daylight hours. How quickly you metabolize caffeine is genetic, so you know best if it stimulates you and keeps you awake at night. If it does, have your last dose of caffeine 8 hours from your planned bedtime, half of it should be metabolized by then. Myth buster! There is very little actual caffeine in chocolate. If you find chocolate stimulating, it is likely the effect of theobromine, a component of the cacao bean and in highest concentration in dark chocolate. Consider ditching the night cap. Alcohol may help you fall asleep faster, but can disrupt your sleep through the night, causing you to wake up and interfering with the deep restorative stages of sleep. Nighttime Blue Light As the night draws to a close, you can start to dim the artificial lights. This means:
See you next week as we carry on our mini resolution to sleep better! |
AuthorMichele is the Senior VP of Membership Development at Concierge Choice Physicians. She is also a professional in the areas of nutrition, fitness and wellness. Archives
July 2026
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