Video: Can Being Sedentary Make You Stupid?
I was sent this question. I looked at the research, and the findings are interesting.
Hey, I’m Pedro from Wakeout. First, quick news: we moved to Substack. It’s a much better platform to fight this sedentary crisis, together.
A few days ago a customer sent me a study claiming that sedentary behavior made us, as he kindly put it, “stupid.” I looked it up and read up on the studies.
The relationship between physical activity and brain health has been studied for years. There’s also some evidence that sedentary behavior can be detrimental for those at risk of Alzheimer disease and dementia. There’s also some work done where it tries to demonstrate that physical activity can enhance intelligence, but this one seemed less conclusive.
Bran fog and fatigue are two factors that make us feel “dumb”. Our performance markedly decreases. In this state, we feel like we can’t get anything done. Creativity is completely depleted, and our ability to learn new things feels severely impaired. I found that brain fog and fatigue are influenced by prolonged sitting. My personal experience confirms this.
So even if chronic sedentary behavior doesn’t make us dumber in the literal sense, it certainly seems to impair our brain’s ability to do its best work. In practical terms, it’s essentially the same result.
Thanks for watching this video. If you like it, please share it. The fight against Sedentary Hell is a protracted one. We’ll need all the help we can get!