Flip THIS Switch to Fight Memory Loss and Create New Brain Cells

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It’s true— that your genes play a major part in your health.

But not necessarily in the way you’d expect.

While you can’t change the genes you got from your parents, you can control those genes’ “on” and “off” switches with the choices you make every day.

Now, researchers have zeroed in on a key genetic switch that protects your memory and leads to the creation of new brain cells.

Here’s how to make sure it’s activated.

Plenty of research shows that exercise is good for your brain.

It’s tied to better memory, better mood, and a reduced risk of cognitive decline. If exercise came in a pill form, it would be a blockbuster drug.

We also know some key reasons why exercise boosts brainpower. It increases blood flow to your brain, helps clear toxins, reduces inflammation, and more.

Now we can add two more: Exercise controls gene activity in your brain—and helps create new brain cells in the process.

For this animal study, researchers used a technique called RNA sequencing on mice with Alzheimer’s. It provided key insights into how exercise affects gene expression in brains with the disease.

In other words, the sequencing provided researchers with a map of how exercise affects cells in the brain’s “memory center,” or hippocampus.

First, they determined that mice that used running wheels had better memory than those who didn’t use the wheels.

Then they discovered that exercise positively altered the gene activity in two key cells in the brain…

1. Microglia: These are your brain’s immune cells and “first responders” against all kinds of threats. In this case, they were disease-associated cells that become activated with Alzheimer’s
2. Neurovascular-associated astrocytes (NVA): These cells help maintain a strong connection between neurons and blood vessels.

They also found that exercise flips the switch on a gene called Atpif1, which drives the creation of new brain cells.

What’s more, exercise produced the same remarkable memory benefits in human brain tissue with Alzheimer’s.

Bottom line: When you control your genes, you control your health. And exercise is one of the best ways to control the genes in your brain that provide protection against cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s.

Looks like it’s time to get moving!

P.S. Try this three-step plan to HALT age-related muscle loss.

View Sources

da Rocha, J.F., Lance, M.L., Luo, R. et al. Protective exercise responses in the dentate gyrus of Alzheimer’s disease mouse model revealed with single-nucleus RNA-sequencing. Nat Neurosci (2025).