Review: How Your Muscles are Critical for Brain Performance, Health, and Aging

Recent reviews show just how much crosstalk there is between physiological factors, and your muscles and your brain — and this is essential for performance and brain health in youth and age

Recently after delivering a workshop on the brain and communication I was having lunch and so the conversation turned to food and the brain. But then the person I was speaking to made a comment about general physical health and the brain — and was also slightly disparaging about those who don’t look after themselves.

How did I respond?

I noted that the brain and body are interconnected and it is underestimated just how much the body contributes to brain function — something I have written about on these pages many times. But maybe even I have underestimated or failed to stress this enough. How so? Well a few nice academic reviews have laid out in clear technical detail just how much the body contributes to brain health.

Though this was never in doubt in my mind, often, as is the nature of scientific studies, research finds discrete connections to brain health or factors that contribute to brain performance. But sometimes we…