The headline is broadly defensible, but the qualifications matter. Effect sizes vary by population, the strongest claims rest on shorter trials, and credible voices push back on how it's typically framed.
And so there is a ketone, beta-hydroxybutyrate, that we've known for a very long time that gets released by the liver during exercise. And we also know that that particular ketone passes that blood-brain barrier. And it's another stimulant for BDNF.
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Bookmarking — the dossier-vs-overview split is the right call. Most of the time I want overview; sometimes I want receipts.
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The two pathways are the following. One is a myokine, which is a protein released by the muscles. And not your heart, these are striated muscles in your body. And so by running, these were studies done in rats on running wheels, they showed that the running rats had more of this myokine, released the myokine past the blood-brain barrier. so got into the rarefied, very protected bloodstream of inside the brain, and that myokine stimulated the release of BDNF in the brain, that's pathway number one. Pathway number two comes through the liver because exercise is a stress generally. How do we know that, well, cortisol is released whenever we exercise. We need that sugar in our blood and so that's how the physiological mechanisms work. And so there is a ketone, beta-hydroxybutyrate, that we've known for a very long time that gets released by the liver during exercise. And we also know that that particular ketone passes that blood-brain barrier. And it's another stimulant for BDNF.