Monday, October 16, 2017

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.

6 comments:

Suncraig said...

"As most of us have heard, our brains are not composed of static, unchanging tissue."

I'm 54 years old, growing up I can remember hearing just the opposite.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

Strangely enough, the importance of exercise is a relatively new discovery in medicine... and especially in the mental health field.

Jack Fisher said...

"performed on mice running on treadmills"

So it works for Demoncraps and libtards. I'll wait for testing on humans.

Uncle Max said...

IDK, I mean, this would necessarily mean that paraplegics would be severely impacted by lack of aerobic activity, no? Would they not deteriorate brain function? Does this explain Stephen Hawking becoming more and more acidic and wacky? How much jogging did Einstein do? Edison? I see a correlation problem, and maybe a study, funded by orthopedic doctors who make big bucks replacing hips and knees in "active" seniors. Just a hunch.

Anonymous said...

Why are we talking about this? The science was settled a long time ago. There are no new discoveries and complexities. Al Gore tells me so. Maybe we need something like carbon taxes and credits for our brains, too. There is no need for this worry about exercise. The government will solve all our problems.

Ares Olympus said...

Anonymous said... Why are we talking about this? The science was settled a long time ago. There are no new discoveries and complexities. Al Gore tells me so. Maybe we need something like carbon taxes and credits for our brains, too. There is no need for this worry about exercise. The government will solve all our problems.

I don't know Gore's opinions on exercise, although he did run a really slow Marine Corps Marathon at age 49. OTOH Donald Trump says exercise shortens life, so past age 25 or so, we need to conserve our energy and drive golf carts and take escalators rather than walking places. I'm sure people respect you more when you can't walk very far on your own two feet.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/05/trumps-unfitness/526677