Innovation and technology have made the human life full of comforts that humans are probably thinking they need not do any physical activity. But now it’s the 21st century and humans are somehow becoming aware of the fact,’ they need to exercise and do physical activity to live a healthy and long life.’
You would have an imprecise sense that exercising daily is good for your health. Or you might hear it from many people that exercise is good for your health. Many would have started exercising on others’ advice but, that too for a very short period.
Exercise is any movement that makes your body muscles work and compels your body to burn calories. Exercise is any physical activity in the form of yoga, a 20-minute walk, cardio, dance, sports, and swimming. Individuals exercise for various reasons, many to stay fit, others to prevent the risk of cardiovascular diseases. While, there is also a myth, that people who want to lose weight should do the exercise. The serious health conditions that are linked to our sedentary lifestyle are heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, stroke, and many more.
Exercise not only boosts our physical health and emotional health but it makes our brain function more efficiently. It increases our contentment and balances our mood. And this what The neuroscientist, ‘ Wendy Suzuki ’ wants to convenience us.
The brain-changing benefits of exercise | Wendy Suzuki.
Wendy Suzuki is a neuroscientist at new york university and globally renowned for her expertise in neuroplasticity. Her book, ‘Healthy brain, Happy mind: A personal program to activate and do everything better.’ published in 2015 examines the connections between brain health and overall health.
”What’s the most transformative thing that you can do for your brain today?”. And the answer to this question is probably,’ Exercise’.
She says, ‘Think of your brain as a muscle.’
The more you are working out, the bigger and substantial your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex gets. This is noteworthy because the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus are the two areas that are most susceptible to neurogenerative diseases and regular cognitive deterioration in aging.
Exercise enhances cognitive functioning, mental health, and memory. At the same time it impediments certain neurological conditions and the aging process. Many studies that were done in regards to memory and exercise interlinking suggests that parts of the brain involved in control thinking and memory that are prefrontal lobe and medial lobe respectively occupy the large volume of the brain in people who exercise on daily basis.
Benefits of exercising.
There are incredible and uncountable benefits of the exercise. Exercise not only improves your physical and emotional health but our overall health.
Exercise not only changes your body, but it also changes your mind, your attitude, and your mood.
Below are some benefits of exercise.
- Decreased stress.
- Helps to control weight.
- Manages the insulin and sugar level.
- Enhances mental health and mood.
- Improves emotional health
- Improves memory
- Regulates blood circulation
- Euphoria[ feeling of happiness]
- Muscle and bone health
Benefits of exercise for our brain.
We all roughly have the idea about the physical and emotional benefits but, we don’t know the benefits of exercise on our brain. The benefits of exercising regularly have incredible benefits on the brain.
Exercise improves cognitive functioning, memory, logical and analytical thinking. As well as it keeps our temperament fresh and lively.
1. Exercise makes us happy.
Many might wonder, how come exercise relates to our contentment? Rather many people feel exercise as physical punishment. but, it’s absolutely true.
While exercising, our body releases chemicals called ‘Endorphins’.these endorphins react with receptors in our brain and decrease the feeling of pain. These chemicals are responsible for triggering positive feelings and happiness. Endorphins give us the feeling of euphoria that is the feeling of happiness. This feeling can be temporary but, as you will exercise more and that too on daily basis, you will be able to experience euphoria in long terms.
The above phenomenon is termed as,’ Runner’s high’. Runner’s high is the state of euphoria experienced during the prolonged physical activity session. We often experience this while doing the heavy physical activity but are unaware of this.
2. Reduces anxiety.
Exercise relieves anxiety, stress, and depression. It’s so because our body releases feeling good – the endorphins. Exercise is like a natural, anti-anxiety treatment.
Also, exercise is great medicine for our depression. Exercising promotes neural growth, reduction in inflammation.
3. Improves our memory.
Studies done at, the ’British university of Columbia’ concludes that aerobics, the kind of exercise that gets your heart and your sweat gland pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the area of the brain involved in verbal memory and learning. Not only that, but exercise also protects our memory. Exercising on daily basis reduces the risk of diseases such as diabetes, and other chronic diseases that are interlinked with the memory-loss. Just remember, an exercise that is good for your heart is good for your brain.
Exercise develops the neural pathways that help us process and recall information quickly. The individuals who exercise on daily basis tend to have more developed and efficient neural connections compared to people who don’t.
4. Increases the number of neurotransmitters.
Dopamine, Norepinephrine, and serotonin are the chemical neurotransmitters released by your body while exercising. Neurons release the dopamine [ functional unit of the nervous system as the cell is of the body]. It is responsible for carrying signals between neurons.
The dopamine operates a pivotal role in the reward system, responsible for controlling motivation, passion, and longing. other than this the body processes controlled by dopamine are:
- Mood
- Sleep
- Learning
- Movement
- Consciousness
dopamine produces the chemical messenger’s norepinephrine and epinephrine. Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter as well as a stress hormone responsible for mobilizing the brain and body for action.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter present primarily in the human gut consists of 90% of total serotonin in human body. It is present in enterochromaffin cells. Functions controlled by serotonin:
- Aids digestion.
- Circadian rhythm
- Metabolism
- Focus and cognition
- Hormonal activity
- Body temperature
- Blood clotting
Exercise is brain food.
’Michelle Ploughman’ is an expert neuroscientist. She is world-renowned for her research in neuroplasticity and neurorehabilitation in stroke and multiple sclerosis. Published her article titled,” Exercise is brain food.” in the year 2008. The overall health benefits of exercise advised by her are as given below.
Three imperative neuroscientific principles that explain how physical activity positively influences cognition.
- While exercising, oxygen saturation [while exercising our heartbeat rate increases and as a result, blood flow to brain increases. and more oxygen is supplied to the brain] and angiogenesis [ Blood vessel growth] occurs in areas of the brain associated with rational thinking and as well as social, physical, and intellectual performance.
- Exercise lowers stress hormone and enhances the number of neurotransmitters like serotonin and norepinephrine, which are also known to stimulate information processing.
- Exercise upregulates [brain-derived neurotrophic factor, insulin-like growth factor, and basic fibroblast growth factor]. These promote the endurance and differentiation of neurons in the developing brain, dendritic branching, and synaptic machinery in the adult brain.