Exercise benefits more than just physical health.
The benefits of physical exercise continue to become ever more apparent, particularly when it comes to preventing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and even some forms of cancer. As of 2016, the American Cancer Society recommends that “adults engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity each week, or an equivalent combination, preferably spread throughout the week,” with even greater recommendations for children and teens. (Moderate-intensity activities require effort equivalent to that of a brisk walk, while vigorous-intensity activities “generally engage large muscle groups and cause a noticeable increase in heart rate, breathing depth and frequency, and sweating.”)
But also becoming more apparent are the positive effects of exercise on the brain. In a February 2016 post on the New York Times Well blog, columnist Gretchen Reynolds covered a study conducted at the Finland-based University of Jyvaskyla examining the effects of different types of exercise on the hippocampus, a key part of the brain responsible for learning and memory. After examining several groups of rats over seven weeks as they completed exercise such as distance running, resistance training, and high-intensity interval training – with a sedentary control group – the researchers found most hippocampal neurogenesis, or generation of new brain cells in an already mature brain, in the animals that had done the distance running.
“Obviously, rats are not people,” observes Reynolds. But the results are significant because they suggest, according to Miriam Nokia, a research fellow at the University of Jyvaskyla who led the study, that “sustained aerobic exercise might be most beneficial for brain health also in humans.”
But Dr. Nokia also clarified that this doesn’t mean only running and comparable moderate endurance workouts strengthen the brain.
“Those activities do seem to prompt the most neurogenesis in the hippocampus. But weight training and high-intensity intervals probably lead to different types of changes elsewhere in the brain,” writes Reynolds.
“So if you currently weight train or exclusively work out with intense intervals, continue. But perhaps also thread in an occasional run or bike ride for the sake of your hippocampal health.”
And if having improved memory isn’t enough, there’s more.
Decompressing
“If your body feels better, so does your mind,” according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA). Studies show that exercise, by reducing fatigue, improving alertness and concentration, and enhancing overall cognitive function, thus helps alleviate stress and anxiety.
“Scientists have found that regular participation in aerobic exercise has been shown to decrease overall levels of tension, elevate and stabilize mood, improve sleep, and improve self-esteem,” says the ADAA website. “About five minutes of aerobic exercise can begin to stimulate anti-anxiety effects.”
Going even further, studies suggest that exercise might help relieve anxiety disorders, which affect 40 million American adults and are “the most common psychiatric illnesses in the U.S.”
“Science has also provided some evidence that physically active people have lower rates of anxiety and depression than sedentary people,” according to the ADAA. “Exercise may improve mental health by helping the brain cope better with stress. In one study, researchers found that those who got regular vigorous exercise were 25 percent less likely to develop depression or an anxiety disorder over the next five years.”
For more information on the benefits of exercise in reducing risk of cancer, visit http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@nho/documents/document/physicalactivityandcancerpdf.pdf.
For more information on the benefits of exercise in reducing stress and anxiety, visit https://www.adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/managing-anxiety/exercise-stress-and-anxiety.
For Gretchen Reynolds’s New York Times column, visit http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/17/which-type-of-exercise-is-best-for-the-brain/; for the full report from the University of Jyvaskyla study of the effects of exercise on neurogenesis, visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/JP271552/full.