Just 6 Minutes of Intense Exercise May Protect Your Brain from Alzheimer’s, New Study Finds

Just six minutes of high-intensity exercise may protect your brain from Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, a new study finds. Short but intense bouts of exercise increase the production of a protein that's critical to brain formation, learning, and memory, and could ward off age-related cognitive decline.

Researchers compared the impact of light cycling for 90 minutes, high-intensity cycling for six minutes, fasting for 20 hours, and a combination of fasting and exercise. High-intensity exercise resulted in significantly higher production of a key protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

Additional research is underway to gauge the impact of calorie restriction and exercise combined. The lead author says fasting and exercise are rarely studied together. They believe fasting and exercise can be used in conjunction to optimize BDNF production in the human brain.