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10.12.2024

Both martial arts and dancing increase BDNF levels

The hormone BDNF forces brain cells to make new connections, keeps the brain young and reduces the risk of depression. If people over 65 take up martial arts, their brains will produce more BDNF. Dancing has about the same effect.

Study
Czech researchers from Charles University in Prague divided 59 healthy but inactive people over 65 into 3 groups.

A control group did nothing at all, a first experimental group danced 2-3 times per week for 12 weeks and a second experimental group did martial arts 3 times per week.

Both the dance and martial arts sessions lasted 90 minutes each. They consisted of a half-hour warm-up, a half-hour core training with moderate-intensity exercise and a fifteen-minute cool down with exercises for relaxation, balance and flexibility.

Results
Dancing [DG] and combat training [MaG] did not result in an increase in the hormone irisin in the blood, but did lead to an increase in the level of the 'cerebral growth hormone' BDNF. In the control group [CG], the BDNF level decreased by 9.3 percent, while in the dance and martial arts group it increased by 3.6 and 7 percent, respectively.

According to psychological tests, the subjects in the dance group performed better mentally and cognitively at the end of the experiment. For example, they felt better [GDS].

Counterintuitive
Based on the effect on BDNF, you would expect that combat sports improved the scores. The fact that this is not the case may be because 83 percent of the test subjects were female.

Social interaction in which people support each other stimulates mental processes in many women. Dancing offers such an interaction. However, relatively many men thrive in a competitive context - such as that of martial arts. If the researchers had conducted their experiment with mainly male subjects, the positive psychological stimulus of martial arts might have been better expressed.

Source:
Clin Interv Aging. 2024 Nov 6:19:1829-42.

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