Physical activity improves cognitive and mental health in many ways. Here’s how to reap the benefits.
Growing up in the Netherlands, Henriette van Praag had always been active, playing sports and riding her bike to school every day. Then, in the late-1990s, while working as a staff scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, she discovered that exercise can spur the growth of new brain cells in mature mice. After that, her approach to exercise changed.
The brain benefits really start to emerge, though, when we work out consistently over time. Studies show that people who work out several times a week have higher cognitive test scores, on average, than people who are more sedentary. Other research has found that a person’s cognition tends to improve after participating in a new aerobic exercise program for several months.Roig adds the caveat that the effects on cognition aren’t huge, and not everyone improves to the same degree.
Good blood flow is essential to obtain the benefits of physical activity. And conveniently, exercise improves circulation and stimulates the growth of new blood vessels in the brain. “It’s not just that there’s increased blood flow,” Voss says. “It’s that there’s a greater chance, then, for signalling molecules that are coming from the muscle to get delivered to the brain.”Once these signals are in the brain, other chemicals are released locally.
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