A recent study published in Nature Neuroscience suggests that the brain is more mechanically connected to the body than previously appreciated. Scientists found that abdominal muscle contractions compress blood vessels connected to the spine and brain, pushing fluid that gently moves the brain within the skull. This physical swaying provides evidence for how exercise might benefit brain health by washing away cellular waste.
Scientists set out to understand the specific mechanical origins of brain motion in awake animals. The central nervous system is encased in thick bone, making it seem isolated from the physical forces of the rest of the body. However, the work builds on previous studies detailing how sleep and neuron loss can influence how and when cerebrospinal fluid flushes through the brain, according to Patrick Drew, a professor of engineering science and mechanics, neurosurgery, biology and biomedical engineering at Penn State.
“Our research explains how just moving around might serve as an important physiological mechanism promoting brain health,” said Drew, corresponding author on the paper. “In this study, we found that when the abdominal muscles contract, they push blood from the abdomen into the spinal cord, just like in a hydraulic system, applying pressure to the brain and making it move.”
humors analogy win
but also, most literature I read about the biomechanics of the body speaks about movement in relation to other parts of the body. Walking incorrectly on your feet or ankles which effects your knee, which effects your spine, etc etc. Walking on varied terrain is a full body exercise.
That’s for humans who never wore shoes in their lives and have calluses on their feet composed of an inch of pure keratin. You can start now, never walk on concrete or drive again, just run everywhere. Butt-naked of course, and eat nothing but raw uncooked food. You should get the calluses after a year or two of constant pain from rough terrain, scratches and puncture wounds.
i dunno about the raw food and conpletely naked, but I did genuinely go barefoot for most of my childhood, I used to walk over holly leaves and sharp rocks.
at any rate, you can still get the benefits of walking in natural terrain without damaging your feet; there are zero-drop shoes, very minimal shoes, and there’s also those barefoot hiking shoes.
You don’t get the same amount of sensory input, though. I walk barefoot as much as possible and those minimalist shoes are like wearing thick rubber gloves.
I’m pretty sure I got some of those by mistake. I wanted Skechers because they’re loafers and got the one they had, not the one I wanted. You can feel every pebble and every crack in the sidewalk. Never before have my feet been so tired. Legs yes, but feet? Not like this. So sick of shoelaces, but Hoka, the most comfortable shoe, only makes shes with laces.
It’s true!
reminds me how we have a system of pipes inside us that pumps around lymph fluid. like ew. but cool
Lymph fluid is so gross looks like snot
Oh no, does this mean there’ll be a Baki character who can huff and puff and make himself smarter mid-fight?
I think breathing exercises probably are beneficial.
The brain fart might be a real thing.
the older i get, the more it seems to prove out that there are a lot of long term, fundamental whole health benefits to walking around a lot, stretching regularly, get good sleep every night, and a sort of everyday chill & gentle, but biomechanically involved activity gardening (repetitively picking things up, squatting, balancing, bending over, arms+legs activities).
When I had acupuncture after neurosurgery, the practitioner spent a lot of time massaging somewhere in the abdomen. I assumed it must have something to do with the vagus nerve, but I guess it was this.
only by accident
Eh, acupuncture is no quackery. I felt better after treatment and even American health insurance pays for it. They wouldn’t unless the numbers were there. Besides, there is a whole street of them nearby and why not? you live in China, go to fricken acupuncture. And I tellyawhut, those people know exactly where your nerves are. It doesn’t hurt, as such, but they definitely work you over.
they pay for it because it’s profitable. china doing it doesn’t make it materialist
They pay for it because it is cheaper than paying for actual physical therapy, which you can only really afford if you are doing something through worker’s compensation. Literally, it was great when I had fucked up my forearm working, but as soon as I didn’t have workers compensation coming in, a single session was like 200. Tried an acupuncturist for 50, but like, shit does not actually work for real fucking problems.
And like, needling muscles is a real thing and can work wonders with nerve damage in conjunction with physical therapy, but that shit hurts like a mother, acupuncture is like a bullshit half-measure that takes advantage some some of the anatomic principles involved, but is in no way a scientific-based medical practice.
yeah the only thing accubullshit has going for it is that there’s a physical component to it, unlike other flavors of woo woo eNeRgY garbage.
i don’t remember all the details from the old days but you can test it against poking needles into places that the magic says wouldn’t help and it has the same reported effect.
its a more believable and regulated medical practice than the quackery that is chiropractics
Nobody was talking about that.
quite a lot of medical advances are
I wouldn’t be surprised if the vagus somehow works in conjunction, somehow. I do remember listening to talk radio one morning and a local MD was talking about the significance of the vagus, and how the weight-equivalence of a US dime could cause excruciating back pain and muscle spasms. He told the audience to consider how highly processed foods, a lack of fiber, hydration, and movement causes long-term constipation, with several (imperial) pounds of waste in the gut, and how a lot of back pain would be easily remedied by addressing the aforementioned.
I know since we all found out how literally poisonous processed “food” is I’ve switched to 95% real food. It’s a big difference. I also eat granola for breakfast and take fiber pills after every meal.
I knew frozen pizzas weren’t health food but not that they were trying to kill you with them. I still have a bottle of food coloring, red No.40 that was banned. I’ll keep it as a souvenir. Made to use up a byproduct of the petrochemical refining process. And this went into our food for fucking decades so they could make a few more pennies off a waste product.It’s truly unconscionable. Imagine mfw I noticed a favorite seasoning I’d used for ages because it’s tasty and has “no msg” prominently displayed on the label (which is why I switched from something else) that used to contain anatto as a colorant switched* to tartrazine!
*Why does my tired brain add or delete words/phrases/forget large swaths of information?
I work in intensive care and we deal a lot with hemodynamics. I was under the impression that this was widely known already, but it might be the case of “we know it exists, but now there’s demonstration of the specific mechanism working irl”
I think this is for lay people who stuff their face with added or artificial carbs and bedroht/stay online all day, but I can obviously be wrong.
Yeah every time my bladder is 10% full in the middle of the night my abdomen has to remind my brain they’re hydraulically linked
I literally feel this in my core.
Demon Slayer breathing techniques are real! I scream as I’m getting dragged into the insane asylum.
I’ve been thinking about this today and I had the thought that maybe the back and forth rocking common in neurodivergent people and those affected by drugs has a biological mechanism related to this hydraulic one that we aren’t aware of.
It certainly seems a hypothesis worth scientific research, imo!
