Health of mind and body intertwined – who knew?
March 1st, 2006 | by ian |
Science News reports that experimental evidence continues to mount that mammals who exercise demonstrate both better cognitive abilities and regenerative healing of nervous tissue.
When they dissected the rats’ brains, Gage’s team found changes similar to those that they’d seen in the previous study’s mice: The runners had more new neurons and stronger connectivity, which is evidence of learning, than did the rats that didn’t have running wheels.
The take-home lesson: if using your brain is important to you, exercise will probably stimulate your brain and improve your thinking. One might question whether the time you need to spend exercising (and recovering) is compensated for by the improvement in cognition. Regardless of whether this is the case the general improvement in health should be worth the investment. Do it.