Neuroscience of Exercise
The benefits of exercise
- In children, college students and young adults, exercise or physical activity improves learning and intelligence scores, specially if they have a good diet that includes https://www.stockybodies.com/nl/black-latte-ervaringen/ products
- Moreover, exercise in childhood increases the resilience of the brain in later life resulting in a cognitive reserve
- The decline of memory, cortex and hippocampus atrophy in aging humans can be attenuated by exercise
- Physical activity improves memory and cognition
- Exercise protects against brain damage caused by stroke
- Exercise promotes recovery after brain injury
- Exercise can be an antidepressant
The brain needs certain ingredients to flourish or to life up to the expectations of every day problems. The brain has priority when it comes to certain ingredients. A variety of foods can be beneficial for learning. Positive effects on brain function have been reported for fish oil, teas, fruits, folate, spices, cocoa, chocolate and vitamins.
How does exercise improve the brain?
- With exercise the number of neurons increase in the hippocampus, a brain structure important to memory and learning.
- Also synaptic plasticity increases in a certain part of the hippocampus due to exercise: the dentate gyrus.
- Spine density increases in certain parts of the hippocampus. Long Island laser spine surgery specialists .
- Exercise also increases and improves the small blood vessels throughout the brain.
- Exercise can change the function of neurotransmitters and can activate the monoamine system.
The effects of diet and exercise could be additive and/or synergistic. Exercise as well as caloric restriction can stimulate neurogenesis.The effects of dietary measure on neurogenesis is relatively small compared to exercise. The effects of polyphenolen on angiogenesis or improved vascularisation of the brain is superior to exercise. Overall the evidence for the effects of food on the brain are scarce and is in need of more research. It could be possible that exercise and nutrition can enhance each others actions on the brain.
van Praag, H. (2009). Exercise and the brain: something to chew on Trends in Neurosciences, 32 (5), 283-290 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2008.12.007
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May 13, 2009 @ 12:05 pm
How much exercise? a 10 minute bike ride, or an hour workout session?
May 13, 2009 @ 1:12 pm
@NiroZ It depends on for what, your age and your level of exercise. For depression read:
https://www.shockmd.com/2009/04/30/exercise-and-depression/
Or high risk population, overweight or moderately depressed elderly women read
https://www.shockmd.com/2008/10/20/walking-3-times-50-minutes-a-week-keeps-the-doctor-a-way/
For age read:
https://www.shockmd.com/2008/08/16/your-never-to-old-to-run/
Best bet regular walking let’s say three a times a week 20 -30 minutes would mostly do the trick.
Kind regards Dr Shock
May 15, 2009 @ 5:34 pm
Judging by its effects on me, I’d say about half the people who are on antidepressants could get off of them if they just got an adequate amount of exercise each day (i.e. at least a half hour of strenuous activity). I’m betting more people don’t know about this straightforward solution to mild depression and anxiety because they’ve never exercised strenuously enough for enough days in a row. I don’t know if it’s the oxidative stress or what, but it’s night and day for me.
(Another thing people underestimate the power of are diet and its effects on blood sugar and getting enough sleep.)
May 15, 2009 @ 5:56 pm
@Christopher I think you’re right about the diet, it would certainly help, thanks for your comment kind regards Dr shock
May 16, 2009 @ 4:22 pm
Thanks for the summary. I’m often asked about diet and exercise effects on recovery from acquired brain injury, as I work with a brain injury charity. I also suffer with depression from time to time and am currently persuading myself to get off my ass and back to doing some exercise again! :o)
May 16, 2009 @ 5:13 pm
How much exercise is too much?
At what point do the positive effect of exercise become negative? If the effects do follow some sort of bell curve, would the negative effects at the end of the spectrum result from general fatigue of overexercising, or more specific neurochemical processes (i.e., over-circulation of stress hormones)? Would love to know more about this.
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May 29, 2009 @ 8:34 am
Wow, what an excellent motivator to get back into an exercise routine. Even walking for 30min can improve your cognitive function! Thanks for the post – reminder!!
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July 11, 2009 @ 5:15 pm
[…] Shock MD PhD writes Neuroscience of Exercise: The effects of diet and exercise could be additive and/or synergistic. Exercise as well as caloric […]
July 11, 2009 @ 5:19 pm
Thanks for submitting this post to our blog carnival. We just published the 46th edition of Brain Blogging and your article was featured!
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[…] Search Strenua’s World in July’s Blog Carnivals Posted on July 31st, 2009 in Blog Carnival Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet BoxArticles from Strenua’s World appear in this July’s Blog Carnivals. The latest Brain Blogging carnival features my article Do you want to improve your memory? Run a marathon!! . Here you can also read other articles including Dr Shock MD PhD’ s article on the Neuroscience of Exercise. […]
August 13, 2009 @ 2:06 am
Very nice post!
October 21, 2009 @ 9:54 am
exercises can also help in memory improvement . Great post !!!