Jennifer Heisz > Quotes

“Regular exercise tones the stress response, making us less reactive to psychological stressors,23, 24 and this promotes optimism, even amidst the most seemingly uncontrollable situations.25”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“Amidst a constantly changing world, the brain strives to keep the body centered around an ideal state — a homeostatic happy place. This is your body’s comfort zone. Unfortunately, our homeostatic happy place is outdated. Its default settings were established more than a million years ago.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“Lactate enhances blood flow to the brain by building new blood vessels.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“This is the power of anxiety. It distorts the mind and disables the body. We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are. And when the mind is fixed with fear and the brain is infused with adrenaline, the world becomes endowed with danger. The outcome is absolutely destructive and has the potential to derail everything we attempt to do.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“When your head is a mess with anxiety, you have but one choice: You need to get out of your head and into your body. You can do that by paying attention to your breath.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“Lactate fuels neuroplasticity by promoting the growth and function of brain cells.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“You’ll get more brain benefits with more challenging exercise. Not maximal effort but comfortably challenging, ideally at or slightly above your lactate threshold.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“People like Naveen worry the most about getting dementia. The researcher called him “worried but well” — a term she reserves for older people who are mentally capable but overly self-conscious. “They are so worried about their memory loss,” she explained, “that it distracts them from the present moment so much so that they seem impaired, even though they are perfectly healthy.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“The health of your body has a direct impact on the health of your brain. In fact, there are only three degrees of separation between sitting too much and dementia. You sit for long periods of time. Your body goes into hibernation mode, depressing your metabolism and increasing your blood pressure, blood sugar, and weight.7 Your high blood pressure damages your heart and its vessels. The small vessels that feed your brain get blocked, putting you at risk of small vessel disease. Without adequate blood supply, the brain’s white matter starves to death.8 White matter acts like a telephone wire that connects brain regions so they can talk to each other. When your white matter is damaged, the communication between those brain regions breaks down just like it did in that telephone game we played as kids; in the end, the message is all mixed up and everyone is confused. It was funny back then, but it’s not funny now. The white matter damage shows up like bright lights on your brain scan called white matter hyperintensities. The scary part is that your brain could be lit up like a Christmas tree but clinically silent, meaning that you may have no noticeable symptoms until it’s too”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“Under stress, the SNS dominates, causing us to hold in our breath. A deep exhale activates the PNS, restoring calm. That’s why yogic breathing is so relaxing.45 Stress also makes our heart race by contracting it. The PNS lifts the SNS off the heart so it can relax and pump blood. However, the SNS grows heavier as the stressor intensifies. At some point, the SNS becomes too heavy for the PNS to lift, and the PNS taps out. For example, during an all-out sprint, this is the point of volitional exhaustion when you feel like your heart is about to explode. Regular exercise strengthens the PNS, and it gains with every workout.46 Eventually, the PNS can lift heavier and heavier SNS loads. Now, you’re physically stronger and can push your body faster and harder than ever before.47 You’re also mentally stronger and less reactive to everyday stressors.48 More active. Less moody. Less inflamed. Less depressed. Finally, you are at the root of the problem.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“What does the vagus nerve detect? Increases in inflammation, shifts in stress hormones, even microscopic changes in the diversity of gut microbiota. Vagus means wanderer, and this nerve literally wanders from the brainstem through the heart and lungs all the way down to the gut, collecting information along the way and notifying the brain of any unusual activity. The amygdala reacts first, inducing fear and launching a stress response. This makes the vagus nerve the ultimate mind-body connector.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“Exercise is anti-inflammatory and reduces the inflammation that can damage the heart and depress the mood.38 Exercising muscles release specialized cytokines called myokines.39 Like regular cytokines, myokines sound an alarm, but their message is less alarming and more precautionary.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“Your extensive white matter damage causes faster cognitive decline and puts you at risk for dementia, stroke, and even death.10 White matter hyperintensities are part of the main pathology for vascular dementia, the second leading cause of dementia.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“This is the basic principle of the 6-Minute Walk Test, which you can do to determine your current fitness level. Researchers have developed a free app called the 6WT that uses GPS to track how far you walk.30 All you need to do is set your age and sex, press play, and walk as far as you can in 6 minutes. Walk outdoors. Wear your normal walking shoes. Use a walking aid if you need to. Slow down or stop at any point. Do the test at least twice on 2 different days, preferably at the same time of day, and take the average of the 2.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“The body heeds the myokines’ advice, and as a precaution it releases pro-inflammatory cytokines to protect itself while exercising. As soon as it stops exercising, the body sends in an (anti-inflammatory) cleanup crew to clear away the inflamed mess.40 This cleanup crew is so thorough that they clear up all the inflammation brought on by exercise and then some. With consistent training, practice makes the cleanup crew perfect, and the body becomes less inflamed. A less-inflamed body is not only good for the minds of heart patients, but also for anyone suffering from a chronic inflammatory condition, including patients with type 2 diabetes,41 rheumatoid arthritis,42 even cancer43 — all of whom are also at elevated risk of depression.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“ONE STRESS RESPONSE FOR ALL STRESSORS There is but one stress response for all stressors. When I say all stressors, I mean all stressors, including exercise stress, relationship conflict, abuse of any kind, financial strain, discrimination, work tension, harassment, and racism. In the same way that moderate-to-vigorous-intensity exercises activate the SAM and HPA axes, so do psychological stressors; however, unlike exercise, psychological stressors tend to be involuntary and long-lasting, meaning that they are less likely to give you the allostasis that you want and more likely to give you the allostatic load that you don’t want. If you’re here because your mind needs healing, you’re probably familiar with chronic stress. At worst, it leaves you feeling helpless. And then something very unexpected happens: Instead of fight or flight, stress causes you to freeze. Learned Helplessness and How to Overcome It “There’s nothing I can do to change things, so what’s the point in even trying,” Leslie thinks to herself before crawling back into bed and burying herself under the covers.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“A less inflamed body also helps protect the body and mind from the daily stressors that can affect us all.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“When someone says, “Trust your gut!” they are referring to the vagus nerve’s keen ability to sense when something is off even before you consciously recognize the problem. This advice serves us well unless we are chronically unwell; then something is off all the time. This causes you to lose your intuitive edge. Instead of being in tune, you feel threatened, think negatively, and act defensively.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“One of the first studies to demonstrate this benefit recruited patients with major depressive disorder who had been taking antidepressants but were not responding. The patients provided a blood sample so researchers could determine how inflamed they were. Then, the patients were assigned to one of two exercise interventions: high-frequency exercise or low-frequency exercise.29 The high-frequency group completed (or exceeded) the recommended physical activity guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise each week, for a total workload of 16 kcal/kg body weight/week. The low-frequency group completed only a quarter of the recommended physical activity guidelines each week, for a total workload of 4 kcal/kg body weight/week. Workouts were done on a treadmill or stationary bike at a self-selected intensity for 12 weeks, and depressive symptoms were assessed at the end of each week. By the end of the 12 weeks, everyone benefited from the exercise, but the inflamed patients benefited the most. Exercise not only reduced their depression symptoms, but it also downgraded the symptoms from moderate to mild — a clinically significant change in symptom severity that was similar to the relief that responders get from antidepressants.30 The best part? Both the high- and low-frequency exercisers benefited equally.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“Can We Screen for High Inflammation Prior to Treatment? Mercifully, we can! Though this next part may depress you even more. Why? Because we’ve known this for over two decades. Back in 2000, researchers showed that a patient’s response to antidepressants could be predicted ahead of time based on how inflamed they were.25 Since then, more than thirty-five studies have examined this effect. Researchers have even narrowed it down to a particular cytokine that seems to be causing the problem, a pro-inflammatory cytokine called TNFα.26 Yet, to date, depressed patients are not screened to determine how inflamed they are. Instead, they are automatically prescribed an antidepressant drug,”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“One of the most devastating consequences of chronic stress is that it damages stress’s off switch.26, 27 This makes the body stress resistant, allowing cortisol to rise to uncontrollably high levels that damage the body28 and mind.29 Exercise protects the brain from the damaging effects of chronic stress by supplying it with a dose of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).30, 31 BDNF acts like a fertilizer that promotes the growth, function, and survival of brain cells, including those that turn off the stress response. Immediately after exercising, our brain cells are bathed in BDNF, which protects those cells against the toxic effects of high stress.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“that. You see, exercise is technically a stressor that pushes your body outside of its comfort zone, and this can make the brain very unhappy indeed.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“This is a powerful display of”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“Recall that lactate is produced when your working muscles need more fuel than oxygen can supply. To cover the shortfall, anaerobic metabolism kicks in, producing lactate. When lactate accumulates in the muscles, they become acidic and you feel the burn. “Sounds toxic!” you exclaim, and for a long time, scientists thought the same. However, it turns out that lactate is not toxic at all, especially for the brain. Ironically, lactate helps protect the brain against the toxic effects of dementia in two important ways:”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“To be clear, stress is not an infectious disease, but it can make you sick. How? By tricking the immune system into thinking you’re sick when you’re not actually sick. It’s called a sterile immune response.16 It’s sterile because your body is free of any foreign bacteria and viruses, but the immune system still acts like you’re infected.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“Every 30 minutes, stand up for a 2-minute movement break. This is especially important if you are sitting for 4 or more hours. Why? Sitting for that long reduces your brain’s blood flow, and we just learned how bad this is for your brain’s health. One study examined whether stand-up breaks could prevent the reduced blood flow from sitting continuously for 4 hours by testing three different protocols:17”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“Stage 1: Stressed-out cells trick the immune system.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep

“The Stress-Busting Effects of Exercise The anti-inflammatory effect is one way that exercise protects us from depression, but exercise does something else to protect us, and it comes back to how we react to everyday stressors. Remember the sixth sense, the vagus nerve? Well, the vagus nerve does more than give us a gut instinct. It’s also part of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) that determines our reactivity to stressors. Although 80 percent of the messages from the vagus nerve go from the body to the brain, giving rise to the sixth sense, the other 20 percent go from the brain to the body to neutralize stress. It’s the yin to the sympathetic yang. The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) dominates during stress; it’s always anxious to speed things up and insists you have one of two options: fight or flight. But the PNS knows how to slow things down (rest, digest), and it is especially good at bringing the body back to its homeostatic happy place after a stressful event.”
― Jennifer Heisz, Move The Body, Heal The Mind: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep