Exercise and the Brain

Senile. When you hear this word the next reasonable step is to visualize an elderly person. As one ages, the loss of mental faculties is the most well-known characteristic. This outcome was thought to be inevitable before researches found an easy way to slow and reverse this process. Art Kramer of Beckman Institute for advanced Science and Technology discovered the positive effect of exercise on the brain. It is known that increase in physical activity will decrease the risk of diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and many other diseases. However, what has now been discovered is that the degrading of cognition can be slowed down by performing simple physical workouts. Dr. Kramer and his lab have tested older adults that have significant improvement in brain function and test much better on cognition experiments. Even more recently, scientists have now discovered that exercise promotes neurogenesis. What was once believed that humans could not grow new neurons has evolved to new belief of “ brain cell growth through exercise”.  Even more exciting is that they may be able to create a pill to promote brain development. A certain part of the brain that is stimulated by neurogenesis is the hippocampal area. Through endurance exercise, scientists have discovered that a protein called FNDC₅ is released into the bloodstream. When this protein reaches the brain another protein, Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor(BDNF), is also releases, which promotes nerve growth and reconnection of synapses. The hope is that scientist will be able to capture the protein that directly stimulates neural cell growth and offer to Parkinson and Alzheimer patients.  Even though, it has been seen to increase hippocampal growth in mice, researchers are still studying these effects and looking forward to the release of this drug to degenerative disease patients. Even if a person does not have these specific diseases, the idea of neurogenesis and slowing the aging of your brain should encourage you to turn off the tv and break a sweat.

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2013/10/13/how-exercise-makes-your-brain-grow/