Can Exercise Make You Smarter?
We’ve all heard the messages telling us to exercise more to help us lose weight or to hel our hearts or to lower our risk of disease.
When you ask someone why they are exercising they’ll tell you, they want to look good in a bikini or lose weight or get buff.
But what about our brains?
When was the last time you heard someone say they are exercising to get a bigger brain?!
Can exercise actually make us smarter?
Well, research has found that exercise can enhance how we think and improve our memory. One study that followed 2 747 over the course of 25 years found that those who were fitter performed better on tests measuring cognition, memory, processing speed and executive function[i].
Photo by libre de droit/iStock / Getty Images
Exercise and Brain Health
So how does this work?
Exercise is proposed to help cognition directly and indirectly.
Direct
What is on of the first things you notice when go for a run or a cycle or do any sort of ‘cardio’?
Your heart rate goes up, right? Well this means your heart is pumping more blood around your body to help you move those legs on the treadmill.
But it also means that your brain has more blood going to it. And blood has oxygen in it which means your brain is getting more oxygen.[ii]
Well this new oxygen actually helps your brain to grow! Yes…grow! This increased oxygen leads to neurogenesis (the process of making more neurons) in the parts of the brain that are responsible for memory and thinking. A study at the University of British Columbia found that regular aerobic exercise appears to increase the size of the part of the brain involved in learning and verbal memory (the hippocampus)[iii]. So your brain actually gets bigger with exercise![iv]
Exercise also promotes the production of neurotrophins. Neuro what?! Neurotrophins actually help neurons survive and function which further helps memory and learning.[v]
Indirect
We have seen that exercise improves sleep and reduces stress and anxiety. As lack of sleep and increased stress tends to impair our ability to think, exercise can improve our thinking ability indirectly by improving sleep and reducing stress[vi].
Get out there and grow your brain!
So get our there an exercise. You’ll not only get the physical benefits but the mental ones, too.
Go for a brisk walk, climbs some stairs or even mop the floor or rake the leaves. Anything that gets your heart pumping.
[i] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-does-exercise-benefit-cognition/.
[ii] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-fifth-vital-sign/201901/why-exercise-is-good-yourbrain
[iii] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110.
[iv] Van Praag, H. (2008). Neurogenesis and exercise: past and future directions. Neuromolecular medicine, 10(2), 128-140.
[v] Livingston, G., Sommerlad, A., Orgeta, ., Costafreda, S. G., Huntley, J., Ames, D…& Cooper, C. (2017). Dementia prevention, intervention, and care. The Lancet, 390(10113), 2673-2734.
[vi] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110