Dr. Susan DeLaney Newsletter January 2011
Rebecca Bogart
Your Brain on Exercise
Many of us have made a resolution for 2011 to increase or start exercising. This is a resolution that many of us make every year with the best of intentions and plans. We want to get in shape or lose weight or feel stronger or wear those clothes we could no longer get into this past year.
Science provides us with new knowledge on the benefits of exercise that may add the extra spark to get us moving and inspire a lifelong commitment to staying active. For a long time it was believed that you were born with a set number of brain cells which began to decline as you aged. Alcohol and drugs acted as agents to rapidly speed that decline.
Your brain, you’ll be pleased to know, is packed with adult stem cells which when given the right inspiration will divide and differentiate to make new baby stem cells or neurons. The process called neurogenesis; means that we each have the potential to continually make new brain cells and one of the major ways to do that is through exercise. In studies done on older adults, Art Kramer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, found that walking 45 minutes three times a week improves memory and executive-control functions by about 20%. This effect may only be in those whose brains have begun to deteriorate which starts to happen in our 20’s. So that probably includes most of us!!
Dr. Jack Kessler, chairman of neurology at Northwestern University has done research on mice looking at the effects of exercise on the brain. According to Dr. Kessler, “as we age, the brain stem cells tend to become less responsive. They don’t divide as readily and can slump into a kind of cellular sleep.” Bone-morphogenetic protein or BMP seems to be one of the substances in the brain that contributes to the inactivity of your stem cells, slowing the growth of your brain, making it older and less nimble.
Exercise seems to counteract the brain-numbing effects of BMP as mice given running wheels in their cages had less BMP related brain activity in a week, an impressive responsiveness to increased activity levels. Also noted was the increase of a brain protein called Noggin, a nicely named protein which acts as a BMP antagonist. The more Noggin in your brain the less BMP activity exists, which translates into more stem cell divisions.
The exact details of the mechanisms involved are still under investigation but it appears that these two substances and likely others as well, interact with one another in the brain and affect new brain cell development. What is known for certain is that exercise definitively increases neurogenesis and the ability of your brain to function. According to Art Kramer “a year of exercise can give a 70 year old the brain the connectivity of a 30-year old, improving memory, planning, dealing with ambiguity and multi-tasking. You can think of fitness training as changing the molecular and cellular building blocks that underlie many cognitive skills.”
So procrastinate no more. Go out and build some new brain cells and have fun while you are doing it!! Dance, swim, walk, do yoga, zumba, cycle or do whatever inspires you to move! Happy New Year to you as well!
Dr. Susan R. DeLaney
The Wellness Alliance
301 W Weaver Str
Carrboro, NC 27510
919-932-6262
www.thewellnessalliance.com
drdel...@gmail.com