Your Brain On Exercise: How Working Out Makes You Smarter

Athletes and people who exercise not only have better bods -- they have better brains too, a host of studies have now firmly established.

A review of studies published earlier this month, in fact, found that a balanced diet and regular exercise can protect the brain and ward off mental disorders.

Other research has focused just on the effects of exercise. The bottom line: Exercisers learn faster, remember more, think clearer and bounce back more easily from brain injuries such as a stroke. They are also less prone to depression and age-related cognitive decline.

But why should a mindless half-hour on a treadmill affect your brain?

Exercise, like hunger, is a stress on your body. "And sometimes," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla of UCLA, "stress can be good."

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Comments

[jennytellia]

And to think I was reading and doing crosswords puzzles all the time to exercise my mind. But all I had to do is get on a treadmill wow. It exercises your brain by the constant change in position of your feet and more oxygen gets to your brain. How does this make you smarter? You still need to exercise your brain by challenging it not taking it for a walk. It is a wonderful thing to imagine but I can keep thinking of examples of people that work out and who are the dumbest things ever and lazy people who are brilliant but do not have the effort to do anything with it.

[dora rice]

what a cute pictue. It makes you smile.

[Swerinjer]

explain Stephen Hawking

[tlhwraith]

... really smart guy, has to use a wheelchair, kind of funny sounding...

Use your logic. The article doesn't say exercise is required for intelligence, it says those who exercise tend to be more intelligent and focused than others in similar peer groups who don't exercise.

Hit the treadmill, it will all make sense to you lol.

[wm1066]

Maybe my exercise isn't working for me cause I had to read that last sentence over and it still doesn't make sense to the rest of the article.

Ya, I loved the bear too!

[mymatrix]

Where does the heart have to work hardest to pump blood to? The brain. The brain is the first and earliest to suffer the affects of aging, obesity, plaque and all heart disease. The brain is oxygenated by blood. You don't exercise, your brain is simply not getting enough oxygen. Visualize that as you make your choices: a chronic hypoxia. If exercise is too much of a pain for you, then you will just have to settle for watching tv while upside down (hah).

[Kungfublood]

But TV is upside down.That's why I got rid of it.

[monty]

Surely there must be a pill that can do the same thing. I mean, who has time to exercise?

[InformedSources]

Interesting study. The real mind-blower was the recent study from Dean Ornish, though. He took a group of men who had chosen not to undergo chemotherapy for non-aggressive, early-stage prostate cancer, and put them on a three-month program of plant-based diet, yoga-based exercise, and meditation­/visualiza­tion. At the end of the program, many disease-promoting genes (including those associated with cancer, heart disease, and inflammation) were down-regulated or "turned off," whereas protective, disease-preventing genes were up-regulated or "turned on." The bottom line--our genes do not rule us. Positive lifestyle changes can change the way our genes function, thereby promoting a healthier, longer life.

It's all good! Just keep your body moving, and you'll feel better and enjoy life more!

[arunachala]

yeah, there was a study a while back that doctors who walked on the treadmill at work were able to focus better

[KillgoreTrout43]

Makes perfect sense to me.




Love the bear.