Exercise GROWS key memory cells….

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Focus on Your Health:

In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.

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Today's post: Thursday, 3-15-2007

Exercise GROWS key memory cells….

Did you know that research has been done that found that people who exercise do better on memory tests?

It’s true; & we now know a key reason why. When you exercise, you literally grow new nerve cells in a key memory center in your brain.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center wondered if there might also be positive changes in the brain from exercising that could explain this at least in part.

Since they had access to an MRI imaging technique developed at Columbia, they did a study to check.

The study released online earlier this month reports that they found neuron growth in the “dentate gyrus” part of the hippocampus.

This is very important for two reasons.

First, as I learned in the book, Brain Longevity, by Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa, the hippocampus acts as a kind of CPU for encoding & retrieving memories, particularly short term ones. And, if it’s damaged by stress, problems with short term memories occur. It also looks like worse damage begins to prevent long term memory from being accessed.

So growing new neurons in the hippocampus INCREASES your ability to store & access memories.

Second, “dentate gyrus” part of the hippocampus is the part that is found damaged when people get age related mental decline.

So, their research also reveals that exercise directly prevents age related mental decline caused by damage to that area of the brain by literally building back any neurons you damage or that die off for other reasons.

Researchers have long suspected exercise was good for the brain. But this is the first study that details which part of the brain. And, it’s one of the most critical parts.

I don’t know what kind of exercise the people in the study did. And, the researchers themselves plan to see if they can determine which kind works best through further research.

But, it is known that as little as an hour & a half total of walking total each week or 3 short strength training sessions a week provide a full 40 % of the overall health benefits of an ideal program each week that takes at least five times as long to do.

My bet is that this is true for this effect also.

So, if you don’t yet exercise & you’d like to keep your memory or make it better,
start doing even a little exercise & KEEP doing it.