We all know that exercising is beneficial for our overall health. It keeps our heart strong and it pumps more blood throughout the body, delivering more oxygen to all organs, increasing their performance and our well-being. However, not many people know that exercising actually makes us smarter as well. Basically, our brain benefits from regular physical activity and its performance increases due to this factor. Moreover, staying physically active will prevent any illnesses which affect the brain. Thus, a healthy lifestyle will prevent Alzheimer's disease, dementia, Parkinson's disease, depression and many other conditions of this type. So, you do not exercise for your muscles only. Rather, you do it for your brain as well.
Exercising and the Brain
When you are physically active, your brain produces hormones with more efficacy. Therefore, brain circuits you already have receive a backup and new connections of this type get created, making you advance mentally. Basically, the more you exercise, the more neurons get a chance of being regenerated.
However, this is not the only benefit of exercising. Additionally, physical activity gives your brain more oxygen and, thereby, more nutrients, removing waste and toxins from the area. This allows the brain to work better and grants the hippocampus to grow new neurons, boosting our learning, memory and attention capabilities.
Next, the more we exercise, the less we are exposed to stress. Stress affects the above mentioned hippocampus, leading to destruction of neurons. However, exercising prevents this and keeps this part of your brain healthy and productive. So, physical activity is an antidepressant – and one of the best of this kind, leading to no adverse effects.
Having a regular exercise routine will prevent depression and keep your positive outlook on life, allowing you to perform better in whatever you do and enjoy life to the fullest. Thus, instead of taking medications, take a healthy walk in the park.
Other Benefits of Exercising for your Brain
A healthy brain is a brain resistant to diseases. Thus, if you exercise regularly, your brain will be safe from illnesses and possible strokes, avoiding damage and decay. Other lifestyle changes can contribute to this fortification. For example, quitting smoking or never smoking at all, eating healthy food and staying away from alcohol abuse are all factors which can boost your brain's health too. Once you provide nothing but health to your brain, exercising will take care of the rest, boosting your cognitive functions and your abilities to plan, schedule, coordinate tasks or concentrate, even at old age. In fact, adults who are physically active have more gray matter than those who lead sedentary lives.
All in all, in this sedentary world, there is plenty of room for a change. Yet, this change needs to take place in the early childhood. So, educate yourself and your children about positive aspects of exercising and make sure that routine physical activity is a crucial part of your life.
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