Maybe Not.
Posted on 08/20/2007 7:29:43 AM PDT by shrinkermd
...Scientists have suspected for decades that exercise, particularly regular aerobic exercise, can affect the brain. Now an expanding body of research shows that exercise can improve the performance of the brain...
...This spring, neuroscientists at Columbia published a study in which a group of men and women, ranging in age from 21 to 45, began working out for one hour four times a week. After 12 weeks, the test subjects, predictably, became more fit. Their VO2 max, the standard measure of how much oxygen a person takes in while exercising, rose significantly.
But something else happened as a result of all those workouts: blood flowed at a much higher volume to a part of the brain responsible for neurogenesis. Functional M.R.I.’s showed that a portion of each person’s hippocampus received almost twice the blood volume as it did before.
The hippocampus plays a large role in how mammals create and process memories; it also plays a role in cognition. If your hippocampus is damaged, you most likely have trouble learning facts and forming new memories. Age plays a factor, too. As you get older, your brain gets smaller, and one of the areas most prone to this shrinkage is the hippocampus. (This can start depressingly early, in your 30’s.) Many neurologists believe that the loss of neurons in the hippocampus may be a primary cause of the cognitive decay associated with aging. A number of studies have shown that people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia tend to have smaller-than-normal hippocampi.
The Columbia study suggests that shrinkage to parts of the hippocampus can be slowed via exercise. The subjects showed significant improvements in memory, as measured by a word-recall test. Those with the biggest increases in VO2 max had the best scores of all.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
While it was once assumed the brain did not generate new brain cells, it is now assumed that the brain can generate new brain cells to assume that it can generate new assumptions about brain cells that assume about brains the new generated assumptions about brain cells in the generation of new brains and assumptions about brains and new cells and generation of new assumptions about brain cells that are new.
Maybe Not.
This is so true! I found that when I began working out five days a week (for an hour) I was able to think more clearly and more quickly at work.
No wonder all those HS and college jocks were so damn smart!...............
mental exercise is just as important too..
i exercise three times a week, plus i love chess, some types of puzzles, reading, etc....
“This spring, neuroscientists at Columbia published a study”
I bet these guys never work out.
But using up all that extra oxygen, won’t it damage the planet? It seems sort of, you know, ecologically irresponsible.
Proof of this thesis, albeit anecdotal proof, is furnished by the high number of geniuses playing professional football.
In a study published this year, an ingredient in cocoa, epicatechin, was shown to improve spatial memory in mice, especially among those that exercised.
Thank God, another excellent excuse to eat chocolate! "I had to, Doctor, I needed the chocolate for my memory."
Uh-oh. I think I owe about 15 million pushups. What was the question again?
Imagine what vegetables those jocks would be if they didn’t exercise. :-)
And lifting weights in prison.
The spelling police might point out that ex(c)ercise might not help after all!
ping (NYT, I know...)
Remember, Jane the faker had liposuction and plastic surgery during the time she was selling her excercise tapes. She probably didn’t put in much work!
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