Dr. Andrew Huberman

None of us invented the notion, but

You know, 150, probably more like 180 to 200 minutes of so-called zone two cardio per week is good numbers to shoot for.

Some of us get more, some of us less.

What is zone two cardio?

Zone two cardio is cardiovascular exercise.

Could be running, could be swimming, could be walking, depending on your level of fitness, which you can just barely maintain regularly.

a conversation.

Were you to push any harder or faster, you wouldn't be able to complete your sentences with much ease, okay?

So is this zone two cardio for me?

No, but if I were to jog and try and have a conversation at some point, I would have a little bit of a hard time.

That's a zone two cardio.

So we know that's true.

Why?

Well, it seems to do a number of things at the level of release of growth factors, brain-derived nootrophic factor, at the level of different, let's call them, I realize the immunologists are going to roll their eyes, but anti-inflammatory cytokines and things of that sort.

You also have inflammatory cytokines.

and things of that sort.

It does seem that increasing blood flow in and through the brain is important for brain health, which is not all that surprising.

There are species of animals that spend part of their life swimming about, and then when they stop and stick to a rock or something, a good portion of the nervous system actually degenerates.

But neurodegeneration and dementia are not necessarily the same thing, and this is something that we don't often hear about.

the age-related decline in memory capacity, in particular working memory, can be related to