Episode 17: The Role of Movement

If you could reduce your risk of dementia by up to 40%… would you?

In this episode, Dr. Kacey breaks down how that’s possible—and why it’s not about a pill, a quick fix, or one single strategy.

Because your brain health is shaped by how your body is functioning as a whole.

If you’ve been experiencing:

•  Brain fog 
•  Memory lapses 
•  Trouble focusing 
•  Mental fatigue 

Or you simply want to stay sharp, clear, and independent as you age—this conversation will help you understand what actually matters.

From inflammation to stress to metabolic health, you’ll start to see how your brain, hormones, and metabolism are deeply connected—and how small, consistent changes can make a meaningful difference over time.

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👉 Adrenal Optimization Test (AOT)
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👉 Mineral Analysis (HTMA)
For deeper insight into long-term stress patterns, inflammation, and metabolic factors affecting brain health. Click Here to order yours.

🌿 Deeper Support

👉 Memory Momentum Method
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📩 Stay Connected

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Protecting your brain isn’t about doing everything.
 It’s about doing the right things—consistently.

And that’s where this begins.

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 Disclaimer: The content provided in The Anchored to Wellness Show is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey there, wellness warriors. Welcome to the Anchor to Wellness Show, your compass in the sea of holistic health. I'm Casey Wallace, and I'm your passionate advocate for vibrant well-being. And after witnessing countless patients caught in the cyclop sick care model, I became really disenchanted with the conventional healthcare system. It's a system where people aren't truly getting better, they're just simply managing symptoms. But I refuse to accept this as the norm, and I'm determined to shift the paradigm from sick care to well care. I have embarked on a journey into the realms of functional medicine and holistic health. And in each of these episodes, we will dive deep into the latest research, debunking myths, and unlocking the secrets to optimal wellness. From brain health to hormone balance, we'll cover it all with a blend of science, soul, and a dash of controversy. Together, we're making waves to reclaim control of our health destiny and anchor ourselves to wellness. So whether you're seeking clarity on brain fog or ready to reclaim your vitality, you're in the right place. So let's make waves and set sail towards a life anchored in wellness. If there was a pill that could boost your memory, improve your focus, and lower your risk of dementia by 40%, would you take it? The truth is, you don't need a pill. You just need to move. If I could get people moving more, it would just make my day. I want you to imagine being 80 years old, full of energy, sharp as ever, and still engaging in activities you love. Now, think about the opposite: struggling to remember names, losing your independence, and feeling trapped in your own mind. You can't remember anything. You can't remember your appointments and where you put your keys. You walk into a room and can't remember, like your mind is just slow thinking, there's no clarity. So the difference between these two futures, it's not luck. It's the choices that we make today. And one of the most powerful choices that you can make is how to move your body. Move your body more. I'm not saying it just is go out and exercise. I want you just to think, I just need to move my body. So today we're diving into the fascinating connection between movement and brain health. We're going to break down how exercise literally rewires and strengthens your brain. We're going to talk about the research-backed benefits of movement on memory and cognition and why you don't need a gym. You don't have to go to the gym to experience the benefits. We're going to talk about real life examples of people reversing their cognitive decline through movement and simple action steps you can start today. So if you're ready to train your brain like you train your body, let's get started. I want you to think about that statement. Are you ready to train your brain like you're ready to train your body? It's directly connected. If you're not training your body, think about the state that your body's in. It's weak. There's no muscle tone, right? You just feel sluggish and fatigue and you're not able to do the things you want to do. The same thing is happening with your brain. So I want to talk about how movement affects the brain. And we're going to talk a little bit about science here because I know a lot of people tend to kind of shut off when we talk about exercise in general because it's like I don't have time, I just I don't know what to do, all these things that all these objections that come up around exercise. But there is so much evidence that exercise and even moving your body more, oh my gosh, just the powerful powerful effects on the brain. Movement isn't just good for your body, it is essential for your brain. Every time you move, you're sending oxygen-rich blood to the brain. One of the biggest issues with dementia in general, no matter what kind it is, is there's just not enough oxygen flowing to the brain. We've got to boost that oxygen-rich blood flow to the brain. We want to deliver nutrients that fuel your neurons. Those are your nerve cells. So we want to deliver those nutrients. How does that work? Through the blood, okay? And that will keep your mind sharp. Think of movement like a charger for your brain. When you stay active, you're charging your cognitive battery, keeping your memory strong, and even creating new brain cells. Yes, this is possible. So let's talk about some science behind that. A 2021 study in a publication called Nature Neuroscience found that even moderate exercise increases blood flow to the hippocampus. And many of you have heard me talk about the hippocampus, and that part of the brain is responsible for memory and learning. We gotta keep the volume of our hippocampus if we want to maintain our memory. A review published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease revealed that exercise increases brain volume. You gotta have brain volume. If the brain is shrinking, it's not working. So exercise increases the brain volume in key areas associated with cognition and emotional regulation. So, in other words, movement literally grows your brain and it helps protect it from shrinking as you age. People who exercise regularly have up to a 50% lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and dementia, and that's from the Journal of Neurology. So exercise boosts brain function in three really powerful ways. The first one is it supercharges your memory and learning. Exercise boosts the production of BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor. And that is often referred to as miracle growth for the brain. Okay, so BDNF helps create new neurons. Remember the cells, okay, create new neurons, strengthening those existing ones, and improves the brain's ability to process and store information. People with higher levels of BDNF perform better on memory tests and have a lower risk of neurodegeneration. And that's in a publication called Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. We've known this. That publication is from 2019. So goodness, six years ago, we're seeing how much we can affect neurodegeneration. Okay. So there is a study from Harvard that older adults who walked regularly had better recall and sharper cognitive abilities than their sedentary peers. That means that simple movement like daily walking can protect and even improve your memory. I didn't say you have to go CrossFit for an hour every single day at 5 a.m. I said just walking every day. We don't have to train for a marathon, okay? We don't have to think that it has to be that hard. Just getting out and walking can be so powerful. So the second way that exercise boosts brain function is it lowers inflammation and that protects the brain from damage. Chronic inflammation is one of the biggest drivers of neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and even vascular dementia. And exercise reduces those pro-inflammatory cytokines. So pro-inflammatory, that means it's stimulating inflammation, pro-inflammatory. So exercise is an anti-inflammatory. It helps to protect the brain from damage. It also improves insulin sensitivity. That is preventing those blood sugar spikes that accelerate brain aging. And it allows the brain to be able to use fuel more efficiently. So here's a real life example. A study in the Lancet found that patients with mild cognitive impairment or MCI who exercised regularly had significantly lower markers of inflammation and slower disease progression compared to those who remained inactive. So the third thing that we can think about that exercise does to boost brain function is it enhances focus, mood, and mental clarity. Exercise increases dopamine, serotonin, and other endorphins, which help to elevate our mood and reduce our anxiety and improve our focus. And when we eat a certain thing or do certain things that create pleasure, that is hitting our dopamine receptors. So think about how if you're having a craving for a certain food, you could go out and walk, that increases dopamine, and then maybe you won't eat that certain food, right? So it can be so beneficial in that realm as well. A study published in Psychiatry Research found that 20 minutes of movement, 20 minutes a day of movement can immediately reduce stress and increase mental clarity. Exercise also helps balance cortisol levels. We don't want cortisol to be too high, but we sure don't want it to be too low either. So this can help prevent stress and it can help that cortisol affects the hippocampus. So if our cortisol is not where it should be, the hippocampus is not able to have what it needs to do, what it needs to do. Okay, so that sounds a lot of like backward talking, but here's the thing: we have to have the hippocampus and cortisol levels affect that. So if we're not out doing something to help this, then that's just running rampant, okay? So 20 minutes a day, what are you spending 20 minutes on that you could easily convert to an exercise program or a walking or something that you could do differently? We we waste 20 minutes on our phones every day. So I would encourage you to do something 20 minutes a day. I also don't really want you to be a couch potato all day. I want you to think of it more of I just need to move more throughout the day because even just being a couch potato all day and then going out and do 20 minutes, you know, that can be that can be really inflammatory as well. So the whole point of this is to get you moving more. And so if I can get 20 minutes of movement out of you a day, then that's more than nothing. Okay? So here's an example. There was a neuroscientist at NYU, and she struggled with chronic stress and brain fog until she committed to daily exercise. Within months, her memory improved, her creativity skyrocketed, and she felt mentally unstoppable. Today, she's a leading advocate for movement as a tool for preventing cognitive decline and enhancing productivity. So, this is your key takeaway. Movement isn't just about fitness, it's about fueling, protecting, and growing your brain. If you want to think clearly, remember better, and protect yourself from cognitive decline, exercise isn't optional, it is essential. So now I want to kind of transition to what is the link between exercise and cognitive decline? We've alluded to this a little bit so far, but if you want to protect your brain as you age, movement is one of the most powerful tools you have. The research is undeniable. Exercise significantly reduces the risk of Alzheimer's, dementia, cognitive decline, but the problem is just most people aren't moving enough to reap those benefits. So let's talk about the shocking truth about sedentary lifestyles and brain health. Physical inactivity is one of the top risk factors of Alzheimer's disease. We are moving way less than we've ever moved in all of creation. Sedentary individuals have nearly double the risk of developing dementia compared to those who are physically active. And that's from the Journal of Neurology in 2021. A study published in Jam and Neurology found that sitting for long periods of time accelerates brain shrinkage and memory decline, even in middle-aged adults. And I will say the reason why that happens, sedentariness is the new smoking. Not as many people are smoking, but smoking is very pro-inflammatory. Okay, so now we're not smoking as much, but we're sitting more, which is very pro-inflammatory. So that is shrinking our brains and causing memory to decline. Even a single week of inactivity can reduce brain function. What does all this mean? If you're spending hours sitting at a desk or on the couch with little movement throughout the day, your brain is suffering. I'm not trying to create fear, but I just want you to understand how passionate I am about this, that your brain is suffering, and that is starting decades before symptoms appear. So let's talk about how exercise fights cognitive decline. First of all, it increases the brain volume and slows aging. It isn't just good for your muscles, it is growing your brain, it is improving that gray matter volume in the hippocampus. Studies are showing that it is responsible for helping with memory and learning because of increasing that gray matter volume. And that's from the neurobiology of aging from 2022. And exercise also preserves white matter. So we have gray matter and white matter, and that helps our neurons communicate effectively. So think about like if you have something between you and another person, it's it's hindering that it's a boundary that you can't get through, that get your message through. And the same thing is happening between neurons if we don't have enough white matter. Brain scans of active adults in their 70s show less shrinkage and damage compared to sedentary individuals. So a study published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that older adults who walked three times a week for six months showed significant increases in brain volume, while those who remained sedentary experienced shrinkage. So they didn't even stay the same. They shrink. Okay. We know that exercise or even movement in general, think about as movement, it reduces the risk of Alzheimer's disease by 50%. A study in the Journal of Alzheimer's disease found that exercise lowers the buildup of those beta amyloid plaques, and that is considered a hallmark of Alzheimer's. We're a little bit kind of like, hmm, is it really the beta amyloid plaques? But that's what the research is saying right now. Regular movement improves that glucose metabolism in the brain. Therefore, you have that fuel. Okay. We have to know that there's a direct connection between insulin resistance, blood sugar levels, and the neurodegenerative changes. So we can make this better by improving our glucose metabolism. Exercise also has been shown to reduce those tau protein tangles, and that can be another key marker of Alzheimer's. So a landmark study in neurology followed thousands of middle-aged adults for 20 years, and those who were engaged in regular exercise had a 50% lower risk of developing Alzheimer's compared to their sedentary peers. So you can see there's so much research to back this up. We know that exercise keeps the brain's detox systems running efficiently. Your brain has what's called, it's like a cleaning crew. I don't know if you've watched the movie Inside Out where the little guys are sucking out the memories and you know the sweeping of the streets and things, but that's basically called the lymphatic system, and they're they're getting rid of some of those toxins and cellular waste and that beta-amyloid buildup. And this system only works properly when you move. Also important to sleep, but that's a whole nother episode. But exercise increases that lymphatic drainage and the cerebrospinal fluid circulation, helping the brain eliminate toxins. We don't want our brain just sitting stagnant in a cesspool of grossness. Sanitary lifestyles slow down this detox process, allowing damaging proteins to accumulate over time. MRI scans show that physically active individuals have higher lymphatic clearance rates, meaning their brains are better at removing waste and protecting against neurodegeneration. And that is why you feel better after you've exercised or after you've walked or done anything, dancing, whatever, yoga Pilates, because you've cleared some of that toxin out of your brain. Your brain is not so much on fire. I want to just say movement is non-negotiable in my book. I move every day. I reach my step goal almost every day. Some days, okay, no, it's not perfect. But doing something every day. If you want to preserve memory, protect against dementia, and keep your brain firing on all cylinders, movement is one of the most powerful tools you have. And it is never too late to start. So I want to talk about what counts as movement because we tend to think it's getting up at 5 a.m. and going to CrossFit or going to the gym or whatever. It does not have to be that. That is one of the biggest misconceptions about exercise, is that if you're not hitting the gym or running marathons, it just doesn't count. That couldn't be further from the truth. Movement isn't just about structured workouts, it's about how you use your body throughout the day. Neat activities, NEAT, non-exercise activated thermogenesis. Did you hear that? Non-exercise activated. Okay. We can just move more throughout the day, and this, all these things we've already talked about are part of movement. So science says that all movement matters. A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that light movement, even walking or stretching, still contributes to brain health and longevity. So getting up from your desk once an hour, do some stretching, walk in place for a minute, something. Research in neurology showed that people who move more throughout the day, even without formal workouts, have better memory and cognitive function. Dancing, gardening, even housework, sweeping the floor, vacuuming have been linked to a lower risk of dementia. I had an older gentleman in my practice that he was so cute. He would check his blood sugar, and if his blood sugar was elevated, he was he would go and vacuum the house. So his house was getting vacuumed pretty often, which was kind of cool. I told him he could come to my house and do that, but his wife was pretty appreciative, right? But that was his whole goal. I'm just gonna go exercise. I'm gonna move. I'm gonna vacuum the house to work on my blood sugar and not just solely rely on medication. So you don't need a gym membership to boost your brain. You just need to move. There's so many things online now: free versions of things, paid versions of things, so many things that can keep you motivated. Challenges through apps, so good. Okay. But here's some different types of movement and their brain benefits. Let's talk about walking. One of the easiest and most effective ways to boost brain function. Just 30 minutes of walking increases blood flow of the brain and enhances neuroplasticity. Okay. Bringing the brain back, making the brain regenerate. A Harvard study found that walking reduces that risk by 40%. Okay. A lot of you have trouble walking from arthritis, those kind of things. That does actually usually get better, but even getting in a pool somewhere, there's lots of places that have pools you can get in and just walk around in the pool can make a huge difference. Aquatherapy is so effective. Strength training. It's not just for muscles, but it's also for the brain. A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that resistance training improves memory, executive function, and processing speed. So if your brain's running slow, maybe you need some strength training. Lifting weights reduces inflammation and increases BDNF, helping the brain grow stronger over time. But you don't even need weights. You can use your own body. Push-ups, squats, lunges, so many things you can do. Pilates, yoga, okay? Just find an app, go on YouTube, find something to do that uses your own body. You don't even need weights for this. Yoga and stretching, it's a powerful tool for calming the nervous system. So yoga increases gray matter in the brain and helps regulate stress, which plays a huge role in cognitive health. Even simple stretching improves blood circulation and helps prevent brain fog. Dancing. It's a hidden brain superpower because you're doing multiple things. You're listening to music, you're dancing, you're moving your body, you're moving multiple pathways that are stimulating the brain in different pathways. So dancing has been shown to reduce the risk of dementia by up to 76%. It combines multiple modalities, so movement, social interaction, and cognitive challenge, making it one of the most beneficial activities for brain health. So everyday movement is just the hidden exercise we overlook. Gardening, playing with your kids, cleaning, or even just standing more throughout the day all boosts circulation and brain activity. A study from the Mayo Clinic found that people who incorporate more daily movement, even small bursts throughout the day, had lower rates of cognitive decline. So move more, sit less. The real enemy isn't just the lack of workouts, it's prolonged sitting. Sitting for more than six hours a day has been linked to higher risk of dementia, cognitive decline, and even brain shrinkage. So easy ways to add more movement to your day is to take a 10-minute walk after meals, even three to five minutes after a meal, has shown to regulate blood sugar and boost brain function. Set a reminder to stand up and stretch every 60 minutes if you work at a desk. Swap TV time for a movement-based activity like stretching or walking in place, even just while you're watching your shows, get on there and do something. Dance to your favorite song that can be a quick energy boost and cognitive stimulator. So every movement counts, whether it's brisk walk, lifting weights, or just dancing in your kitchen, those are all beneficial to the brain. So, how much movement do you need for your brain to benefit? A lot of people assume that in order to see real brain benefits, they need to spend hours working out every day. But science tells us a different story. The key isn't about extreme workouts, it's about consistency over time. So the research says that the gold standard is 150 minutes of moderate intensity movement per week. That's about 30 minutes a day, five days a week. That's according to the American Heart Association, the World Health Organization. But here's what I say plan to do something every day. So maybe you'll do something five days a week. Okay. If you say I'm gonna do something five days a week, probably you're only gonna do it three days a week. So I promise you, once you start moving every day, you will not be able to go back to not moving every day. Day. It is painful to sit and do no activity. You likely will not go back to being sedentary because you feel so much better. Even a 10-minute movement session has shown significant cognitive benefits. That's from the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity from 2021. Strength training twice a week can enhance executive function, memory, and processing speed. And that study from Harvard Medical School found that people who walked for 45 minutes three times a week improved their memory recall and attention span in just six months. How many of us have completely lost our attention span? Here's another way you can get that back. So you don't have to plan on hours of intense workouts. Small regular movement is enough to create lasting brain benefits. If I can get people moving more, I feel like I've done a really good job. So do we need to do moderate or high intensity? I think it really depends on the state of your body. If you're really stressed out and your nervous system is crazy, doing high-intensity exercise might not be the thing for you. You might need to focus on low to moderate just so you can start to regulate those pathways to help not be in such sympathetic overdrive all day. I have to often tell people that I feel like that are in a dysregulated nervous system state, you might have to back off your exercise if it's way too intense. So moderate exercise, this supports blood blood flow to the brain. It increases that BDNF, it reduces cortisol, right? Lowers stress is healthier brain. Strength training that enhances our brain connectivity, memory formation, lowers inflammation, lowers oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is stress at the level of the cell that damages our neurons. We build our muscle, and that's directly tied to brain longevity. High intensity exercise, this is like HIPAA training or sprints or interval training, this boosts brain performance immediately. It's shown to improve focus and problem-solving skills. It also helps to clear some of that toxin that's in the brain, which is linked to Alzheimer's, and it does improve glucose metabolism and preventing insulin resistance in the brain. So even thinking about a combination of moderate movement and strength training and occasional bursts of intensity work best for brain health. But again, you have to pay attention. If it's taking you five days to recover from your exercise, it was probably too intense. So work up to that, okay? How to make it doable. I don't want excuses. I just want action. If you're short on time, do three 10-minute walks per day instead of one long workout. Use commercial breaks or podcast listening time to stretch or do light movement. If you don't like the gym, find activities you actually enjoy: dancing, yoga, hiking, playing with your kids. Use body weight, your own body weight exercises at home. You don't even need any equipment. If you're inactive, start small. Five to ten minutes a day is enough to get your brain engaged and you will feel better. Then you'll want to do more. You'll be able to do more. Track how you're feeling after moving. It does provide a cognitive boost. So you don't need to exercise like an athlete to reap brain benefits. You just need to move your body consistently, even in small ways, and your brain will thank you. So I do want to share with you a real life transformation of how movement changed one man's brain. And I will call him John just for the sake of his own privacy, but he is a 62-year-old retired engineer, and he came to me worried about his memory. He was experiencing brain fog and forgetfulness. He was having trouble focusing, and these were things he really had never struggled with before. And so he was told that, oh, it's just normal aging. He kind of had bought into that, like what we're being told this is just normal aging, but he really wasn't ready to accept that. And thank goodness, because he's only 62, and what we found was his blood sugar levels were borderline prediabetic. It was affecting his brain's ability to process his energy, like he didn't have the appropriate fuel for his brain, he couldn't use the fuel he was actually consuming. So he lived a very sedentary lifestyle after retiring. He was spending a lot of his day sitting, and his stress levels were high, and that was really impacting his brain function. So, what did we change? We started him on just daily 10-minute walks after meals, and that was to stabilize his blood sugar, bring down insulin release. He incorporated simple resistant exercises at home. He did not go to the gym, he just did them at home, and he added some breath work and some stretching in the morning to help regulate his nervous system. So, what were his results? Within six weeks, he noticed his mental clarity was improving. He noticed within three months, we noticed his blood sugar levels had stabilized and his energy had skyrocketed. And at six months, he knew he had better memory, focus, and confidence in his thinking. And that was being shown on his scoring as well. So movement isn't just about exercise, it is about fueling the brain, reducing stress that helps the body and the mind function optimally. So, how to start moving today, even if you're busy. I hear that all the time. We're too busy to do anything. We've seen how movement protects your brain, it improves cognition and reduces your risk of dementia. The best part, it starts working almost immediately. So, short-term benefits, let's get that immediate boost. We increase oxygen and blood flow to the brain, and that improves our focus and our energy. It lowers cortisol levels, it reduces stress, reduces brain fog, triggers dopamine and serotonin release. That enhances our mood, enhances our motivation. And then the long-term benefits, we want to be talking about brain protection for life. We want to preserve our brain volume and it slows down cognitive decline, it prevents neuroinflammation and insulin resistance, which are key factors in dementia, and it keeps the system balanced, improving overall brain resilience. What is resilience? It's just being able to adapt to that change more effectively. So movement is medicine. Every step you take supports your brain health. If you want to stay sharp and focused and thriving as you age, movement is non-negotiable. So your challenge is to pick one movement habit to start today, whether it's a 10-minute walk, dancing to music, or stretching right before bed. Track how you feel after a few weeks and notice the changes in your energy, focus, and clarity. So if there's one thing I want you to take away from this episode, it's this. Your brain was made to move. Every single time you move your body, whether it's walking, stretching, lifting weights, or dancing, even in your kitchen, just putting on a song and dancing, you are actively protecting your brain, sharpening your memory, and lowering your risk of cognitive decline. Movement isn't just about fitness, it's about longevity, mental clarity, and keeping your brain young for life. And the best part, it's never too late to start. So pick what you're going to do. One small action can make profound change as you move forward. It could be walking, stretching, yoga park further away, use the stairs, any of those things. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to be consistent. So let's optimize your brain, balance your nervous system, keep you sharp for years to come. And don't forget to share this episode with someone that you care about because we all deserve a brain that works better and longer and stronger. And even if you would be willing to leave a review, that's super helpful as well. So more people will see this. So keep moving and keep thriving. And I'll see you next time. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Anchor to Wellness Show. Together, let's anchor ourselves to a life of vibrant well being. Until next time, take care, stay curious, and embrace the journey to holistic vitality. Stay anchored and stay well.