Exercise Could Improve Your Brain Functioning, Study Suggests

What's good for the body is good for the brain.

Findings presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress show the brain-boosting effects of just four months of exercise.

"It's reassuring to know that you can at least partially prevent that [cognitive] decline by exercising and losing weight," study researcher Dr. Martin Juneau, director of prevention of the Montreal Heart Institute, said in a statement.

The study included overweight and sedentary adults with an average age of 49. They underwent twice-weekly sessions of intense interval training for four weeks -- which included circuit weights and exercise bikes -- before and after which they underwent tests of their cognitive functioning, cardiac output, body composition and exercise tolerance and capacity.

By the end of the study, the researchers found that not only were the participants' body measurements all improved -- they also did better on the tests of cognitive functioning.

"At least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week can make a huge difference to manage risk factors for heart disease and stroke," Dr. Beth Abramson, spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, said in a statement. "There are many benefits of exercise -- we know it can make us feel better. This suggests it can make us 'think better' as well."

Recently, a study in the journal Neurology showed that physical exercise trumps mental exercise in beating brain shrinkage (linked with memory problems and even Alzheimer's disease), HuffPost 50 reported.

For more ways exercising is good for mental health, click through the slideshow:

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• It Sharpens Thinking

  Earlier this year, Dartmouth researchers <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/31/exercise-makes-you-smarter-adhd-research_n_1528383.html">added support to mounting evidence about the way that exercise affects learning</a> and mental acuity: it boosts the production of ?brain derived neurotrophic factor" -- or BDNF ? a protein that is thought to help with mental acuity, learning and memory.

• It May Alleviate Childhood ADHD Symptoms

  In the same Dartmouth study, the researchers discovered that, thanks to the BDNF boost, exercise also helped to <a href="http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/05/exercise-memory-and-adhd/">alleviate ADHD-like symptoms in juvenile rats</a>. Since BDNF is involved in the brain's development and growth of new cells, the effect was more profound on the younger rats, with their still-developing brains and more rapid cell turnover, compared to adult rats.

• It Helps You Learn New Tricks

  Even one exercise session can help you retain physical skills by enhancing what's commonly known as "muscle memory" or "motor memory," according to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3433433/">new research published in <em>PlosOne</em>.</a> <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/how-exercise-can-help-you-master-new-skills/">As the New York <em>Times</em> reported</a>, men who were taught to follow a complicated pattern on a computer and subsequently exercised were better able to remember the pattern in subsequent days than the men who didn't exercise after the initial squiggle test.

• It Supports Problem-Solving

  In one study, mice that exercised by running not only generated new neurons, but those neurons lit up when the mice performed unfamiliar tasks like <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/how-exercise-could-lead-to-a-better-brain.html?pagewanted=all">navigating a new environment</a>.

• It Helps Alleviate Symptoms Of Depression

  When you exercise, your pituitary gland releases endorphins to help mitigate the physical stress and pain you are experiencing. But those endorphins may play a more important and longer-lasting role: they could help alleviate symptoms of depression, <a href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/depression-and-exercise/MH00043">according to a Mayo Clinic report</a>.

• It Reduces Stress

  Although exercising raises our levels of cortisol -- the hormone that causes physical stress and is even associated with long-term memory impairment -- its overall effect is one of a stress reducer. That's because exercise increases the <a href="http://www.hormones.gr/57/article/article.html">body's threshold for cortisol</a>, making you more inured to stressors.

• It Helps Delay Age-Associated Memory Loss

  As we get older, an area of the brain called the hippocampus shrinks. That's why age is associated with memory loss across the board. However, profound memory loss -- such as in dementia and Alzheimer's disease patients -- is also contributed to by accelerated hippocampus shrinking. Luckily, the hippocampus is also an area of the brain that generate new neurons throughout a lifespan. And, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/02/21/133777018/aerobic-exercise-may-improve-memory-in-seniors">the research shows</a>, exercise promotes new neural growth in this area.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/exercise-brain-functioning-cognitive-_n_2039900.html

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