More Exercise; Better Brain Functioning

I’m sure you already knew this, but aerobic exercise and physical condition does wonders for your brain. It forestalls the onset of dementia and makes you smarter. You don't have a problem with that, do you?

True enough, Gretchen Reynolds explains (via Maggie’s Farm), the tests proving this point were performed on mice running on treadmills. And yet, the quantity of exercise, compared to that of a more sedentary control group, made significant changes in brain structures… changes for the better, that is.

Here is a teaser from her article:

Because we can never have enough reasons to keep exercising, a new study with mice finds that physical activity not only increases the number of new neurons in the brain, it also subtly changes the shape and workings of these cells in ways that might have implications for memory and even delaying the onset of dementia.

As most of us have heard, our brains are not composed of static, unchanging tissue. Instead, in most animals, including people, the brain is a dynamic, active organ in which new neurons and neural connections are created throughout life, especially in areas of the brain related to memory and thinking.

This process of creating new neurons, called neurogenesis, can be altered by lifestyle, including physical activity. Many past studies have shown that in laboratory rodents, exercise doubles or even triples the number of new cells produced in adult animals’ brains compared to the brains of animals that are sedentary.

It’s well worth a read.