Exercise: better for your brain than your body?

I don’t like this picture, but is visually makes the point of a really good article that I just read by Julie Deardorff of the Chicago Tribune: http://www.philly.com/philly/health/sportsmedicine/Exercise_helps_the_body_but_the_brain_may_benefit_the_most.html#yfdOOJkrfWCMPKK5.01

The point being that while exercise helps the body (duh!) it just might help your brain even more. Ms. Deardorff says it this way “Exercise tones the legs, builds bigger biceps and strengthens the heart. But of all the body parts that benefit from a good workout, the brain may be the big winner.”

Deardorff summarizes a bag of research findings by noting that “Scientists used to believe the mind-body connection was a one-way street: The brain helped build a better physique — or else it sabotaged attempts to get to the gym. But scores of studies suggest that what’s good for the body also is nurturing the old noodle. Exercise, it turns out, can help improve cognition in ways that differ from mental brain-training games.”

Wait! Where’s the science behind all this? 

Deardorff nails that saying “In the mid-1990s, Carl Cotman’s team at the University of California-Irvine first showed that exercise triggers the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which helps support the growth of existing brain cells and the development of new ones.” Her article goes on to cite other studies and scientists.

Interested? Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/health/sportsmedicine/Exercise_helps_the_body_but_the_brain_may_benefit_the_most.html#yfdOOJkrfWCMPKK5.01

Brain over Brawn? Or, More Accurately, Brawn Builds Brains.

Brawn builds brains. That’s the conclusion of writer Gretchen Reynolds.  She’s recently written a book, entitled The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can: Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer. Her book backs up that assertion with a review of the latest exercise and brain-building research.

I listened to her interview (and she’s a really fun interview) with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air which hooked me even though it mostly focused on her new insights on exercise. Here’s a link to that interview: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=152336802&m=152339817

In an April 18^th New York Times article, though, she asserts that “The value of mental-training games may be speculative… but there is another, easy-to-achieve, scientifically proven way to make yourself smarter. Go for a walk or a swim. For more than a decade, neuroscientists and physiologists have been gathering evidence of the beneficial relationship between exercise and brainpower. But the newest findings make it clear that this isn’t just a relationship; it is the relationship. Using sophisticated technologies to examine the workings of individual neurons — and the makeup of brain matter itself — scientists in just the past few months have discovered that exercise appears to build a brain that resists physical shrinkage and enhance cognitive flexibility. Exercise, the latest neuroscience suggests, does more to bolster thinking than thinking does.”

That last line is both well-written and provocative.

I haven’t read her book, but have a hold on it at the library. I have read her NY Times article and it sounds a lot like something Barbara Strauch would say.

Interested? Here’s a link to her NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/how-exercise-could-lead-to-a-better-brain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1