The Brain Benefits of Cardiorespiratory Fitness (CRF)

Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is the ability of your circulatory and respiratory systems to supply oxygen to skeletal muscles during sustained physical activity. It reflects how effectively your heart, lungs, and blood vessels work together to fuel your body and is primarily measured by your VO₂ max, and this measures the maximum amount of oxygen your body can absorb, transport, and utilize during intense physical exertion. In other words, CRF reflects your overall physical conditioning. Each of us has a baseline level of CRF, and if you want to increase it, the best way to do so is a combination of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and Moderate-Intensity Continuous Training (MICT). HIIT involves periods of intense exercise at 85-95% of your maximum heart rate followed by periods of recovery. MICT involves steady-state cardio where you can comfortably hold a conversation, typically 64–76% of your max heart rate. Examples include brisk walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming for 30–60 minutes per session. I know from personal experience that as you age, HIIT training tends to subside, but MICT can keep you plugging along until the day you die unless you are dealing with serious, untreated medical problems. As they say, walk it off!

Research is Connecting the Dots

Although the general health benefits of being in shape are well known, recent research has shown that CRF is also very good for your brain. A recent paper titled “Cardiorespiratory fitness and risk of mental disorders and dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis” clearly showed that CRF was associated with a much lower incidence of common mental disorders and dementia. Another recent landmark study titled “Cardiorespiratory fitness and risk of dementia: a longitudinal cohort study” supports the idea that CRF can significantly lower your risk of dementia. What’s really disturbing is that global mental disorders have nearly doubled since 1990. Dementia also appears to be increasing across the world, but this has been attributed to an aging population. I don’t know about you, but as I get older, I want to bring my brain with me. What more do you need to know to get your butt off the couch and get moving!

A New Paradigm Hits the Scene

The experts explain why mental disorders and dementia seem to be increasing so rapidly

around the world. I have an explanation that readily explains these trends. We know that the ultra-processed food that has taken over our diet over the past 70 years is neurotoxic and very bad for your brain. As you know, your brain regulates just about everything in your body, including energy storage. Over many years of studying these issues, I have concluded that ultra-processed food is triggering a form of brain dysfunction I named Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. People with CARB syndrome can develop up to 22 brain dysfunction symptoms that overlap with the symptoms of many traditional brain disorders, creating massive diagnostic and therapeutic confusion. CARB syndrome also effects the brain in a way that pushes you to store excess body fat at virtually any level of caloric intake.

Not So Typical Depression

For example, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) has been around since the dawn of mankind, and it’s always been associated with loss of appetite and weight loss. Over the past 70 years, we started to see a lot of folks who appeared to be depressed, but they had an increased appetite and weight gain. The geniuses at DSM who were sitting around eating donuts and drinking coffee decided to call this weight gain form of depression “atypical depression”. The only thing atypical here is their lack of scientific thinking! Atypical depression is CARB syndrome, and it has no connection to classic MDD, a disorder that has always been rare. Most people who are currently diagnosed with depression have CARB syndrome, and if you treat them with SSRI type medications, they get worse over time and gain more weight.

Exercise Paves the Road to Optimal Brain Health

The good news is that exercise to enhance CRF is one of the eight pillars of treatment for CARB syndrome, but in order for it to be effective, you have to include all the pillars of treatment because folks with untreated CARB syndrome have significant mental and physical fatigue, making it almost impossible for them to exercise. So, if you seem to be storing too much body fat and have a significant number of CARB syndrome symptoms, what should you do? The answer is simple—follow Dr. Wilson’s eight pillars of treatment:

1. Eliminate ultra-processed foods with high-glycemic carbohydrates, excessive sugar, and omega-6 fatty acids from your diet, and consume a sensible number of whole foods.
2. Keep your fructose intake below 25 grams daily as recommended by my medical school friend Richard Johnson.
3. Take targeted supplements to boost neurotransmitter levels and support healthy brain function. I recommend CARB-22. I also recommend Monch Monch to slow the absorption of high glycemic carbohydrates in a meal because nobody eats perfectly!
4. Exercise your body and mind. This includes regular physical exercise to increase CRF and mental challenges through learning new things, and meditation. My good friend Andy Steinfeldt is a living example of how these elements improve your function and quality of life.
5. Get plenty of restful sleep, around 8 hours per night. Avoid getting too little or too much sleep.
6. Maintain as many healthy relationships as possible to enhance your social life.
7. Minimize inflammation by consuming sufficient high-quality omega-3 fatty acids and limiting the intake of seed oils to maintain an AA/EPA ratio of 1 to 3. I recommend OmegaRx by Barry Sears.
8. Check your homocysteine level, and if it’s above 7, take a combination of B vitamins and trimethylglycine (TMG) to lower it to 7 or below.

Ultra-Processed Foods–Like Adding Gas to a Fire

I believe the reasons the above-mentioned studies show that exercise reduces mental disorders and dementia is because it helps to reverse CARB syndrome. CARB syndrome and dementia are not directly connected, but when you add CARB syndrome to dementia, it’s like pouring gas on a fire! Some people now claim that dementia is reversible, but I suspect what they are really seeing is when CARB syndrome improves, symptoms of dementia improve because the gas is gone. People who only have CARB syndrome who have been misdiagnosed with a mental disorder will become completely normal with effective CARB syndrome treatment. So yes, CRF is important, but in my opinion saving your brain function should be at the top of your list of priorities. If you follow my eight recommendations, you can achieve both. What could be better than that?