For the first time, a research group led by Assistant Professor Takashi Matsui of the University of Tsukuba discovered that an athlete's sports conditioning method that combines high-sugar diet intake and exercise has the effect of increasing glycogen levels in the hippocampus, which is responsible for learning and memory in the brain. It aims to establish the world's first brain-targeted conditioning method that enhances cognitive function in a week.
Glycogen Loading (GL) has long been popular as a conditioning method for endurance athletes one week before the race, increasing the amount of glycogen stored in the muscle and increasing endurance ability.The research group has already reported that glycogen (hippocampal glycogen), which is also stored in astrocytes (a type of glial cell that surrounds nerves) in the hippocampus, increases with long-term exercise training that enhances cognitive function.
This time, in addition to ingesting a high-sugar diet (sugar with a calorie ratio of 70%), rats were given intense exercise on the first day, then light exercise for 3 days, and a GL for resting for the last 3 days.The effect of GL on the amount of hippocampal glycogen was investigated using a brain glycogen measuring device.In addition, exercise conditions were also examined using a normal sugar diet (sugar with a calorie ratio of 60%).As a result, the short-term GL of one week increased the amount of hippocampal glycogen as in the long-term training, and the effect was not due to a high-sugar diet but due to "tight exercise one week ago". Newly proposed as "Kaiba GL".
In the future, Kaiba GL is expected to be useful not only for athletes' high performance for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, but also as a new exercise and nutrition strategy that helps athletes and adults to demonstrate their cognitive performance.
Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Hyper-hippocampal glycogen induced by glycogen loading with exhaustive exercise
