Keeping Fit: Can exercise sharpen your brain?

Published 3:00 pm Tuesday, December 19, 2023

When we think about the benefits of exercise, we usually think of better sleep, more energy, stronger muscles, maintaining a healthy weight and a healthier heart. These are all true. However, we rarely consider the immediate effects that physical activity can have on the most important organ in our bodies: the brain. Let’s dive deeper into the “why” of exercise for cognitive and emotional health.

As humans, we spend much of our time thinking and feeling. Each day, we must plan, make decisions, remember, process information and pay attention. As these cognitive skills let us move through the world, so do our emotions. Feelings of fear, sadness, anxiety, anger and happiness are all powerful signals we use to guide our lives. Exciting research from Psychosomatic Medicine shows that aerobic exercise such as walking, jogging, biking, swimming and using an elliptical trainer can profoundly benefit cognitive and emotional processes.

Improves cognitive abilities

The human body is designed to move and to move often. In fact, our hunter-gatherer ancestors have been estimated to take about 16,000-17,000 steps (about eight miles) per day. Copious amounts of evidence show that we must engage in physical exercise if we want optimal mental health. Exercise is such powerful brain medicine that even a single “dose” of aerobic activity has important effects on our cognitive abilities like improving our ability to plan, develop strategies and memory recall.

Often, we feel overstressed and overscheduled. and we think cutting the time we spend at the gym would be a good solution. However, neuroscience research from the journal Neuropsychology suggests the opposite. Stress, in fact, can inhibit our thinking abilities, so in times of high stress we may benefit from physical activity the most. Next time you insist you’re “too busy,” think twice because even a brief run on the treadmill may yield helpful returns on your ability to think on your feet and develop innovative solutions to complex problems.

Moreover, it’s never too late to reap the cognitive rewards of exercise. Several studies from the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Parkinsonism have indicated that beginning to exercise even after midlife may contribute to a reduction in dementia risk, especially in people diagnosed as overweight or obese in midlife. These results suggest that exercise may help prevent dementia and improve quality of life well into a person’s senior years.

Enhances emotional health

In addition to improving your cognitive abilities, exercise can benefit your mental health. When you engage in physical activity your brain experiences a wild roller coaster ride. It releases a magical potion of feel-good chemicals like endorphins, dopamine and serotonin. Think of it as a rave party for your neurons, where they dance around and throw confetti of joy.

As humans, we are designed to deal with short-term stressors, but we now live in an era when people are beset with a chronic style of suffering that can have devastating and lasting impacts on our emotional lives. Depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse disorder are all common forms of chronic stress overload. The good news is that exercise can even be a helpful therapeutic intervention for these things.

A study done by researchers at Duke University assigned sedentary adults with a diagnosis of depression to one of four protocols: supervised exercise, home-based exercise, antidepressant therapy or a placebo pill. After four months of treatment, people in the exercise groups and the antidepressant group had higher rates of remission than people taking the placebo. Results indicated that exercise was generally comparable to antidepressants for patients with major depressive disorder. Also, the follow-up in the months afterward revealed that exercise is not only helpful in treating depression but also for preventing relapse.

Final thoughts

The brain is powerful and mysterious. Regular physical activity like 7,000-10,000 steps a day, as well as some strength training once or twice a week, is one of the best ways to improve overall health. and anyone can gain physical and brain health benefits from exercising, regardless of age, ethnicity, shape or size.

Sometimes, the first step is the hardest, but just remember to start where you are and move forward. If all you can do is 500 steps to start, great! Do it every day and build up a little at a time. Making exercise a priority in your life can improve health and brain function, adding years to your life and life to your years.

Aaron Mendez is a fitness consultant at the Bradley Wellness Center.