Brainpower: Why exercise can improve your mind.
When it comes to the benefits of maintaining good levels of physical activity, it is easy to appreciate the positive effects this will have on our bodies. After all, we can often see ourselves changing shape and developing muscle tone. We also just feel better when we are fitter. What is less obvious and harder to appreciate, is the amazing influence it has on our brains!
Brainpower!
Research consistently shows that levels of fitness have a profound and lasting influence on a wide range of cognitive abilities.
But how does this actually work?
A major factor is the positive effect that exercise has on your brain’s neuroplasticity. This is the ability of the brain to adapt and create new neural connections over time.
So, when learning a new skill for instance, continued repetition of certain movements or activities will retrain the brain and create the necessary neural connections and pathways for us to master it effectively.
Neuroplasticity is therefore vital to the human brain’s ability to adapt, learn new things and store memories and information. It has been proven that exercise directly cultivates the growth of these new neurons in the brain.
A 2016 article for the National Centre for Biotechnology Information entitled ‘Neuroplasticity and Clinical Practice: Building Brain Power for Health’ looked at the structural and functional effects of physical exercise (PE) on the brain as shown in the table (below):
The article concluded that ‘Neuroplasticity is an important feature of the nervous system, which can modify itself in response to experience. For this reason, physical exercise may be considered a factor promoting neuroplasticity’.
Furthermore it recommended that ‘..all things considered, it is urgent to prescribe exercise at any age because it can be considered beneficial for body and brain’.
In another report, previously sedentary adults who performed an aerobic fitness plan for six months were able to boost the performance of their cognitive drills that require what is known as ‘executive control’. This is the concentration that helps you to switch between different tasks without making mistakes.
A study of 4,000 over 55-year olds found that those who rarely took part in physical activity were more than twice as likely to suffer from cognitive impairment than those who engaged in exercise such as gardening, swimming or cycling a few times a week.
Another study followed 1,500 people for 20 years, finding that those who exercised twice a week during middle age were less likely to develop dementia by the time they reached their 70’s.
It is well documented that exercise helps to cut the risk of developing diabetes and obesity but maintaining your cognitive performance into old age is now being seen as having serious implications for the reduction in levels of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
As the brain relies on a steady supply of nutrients and oxygen through an intricate network of blood vessels, physical activity encourages the construction of new supply lines and exercise can contribute to ensuring a lasting and more permanent change.
Whatever your age, even gentle activities such as taking a walk can work wonders for your brain.