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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Exercise May Make You Smarter

I have always said that exercise has a lot of great benefits – much more than just supplementing the latest diets. There are studies out there that have shown it can make you feel better, stabilize your moods, and even make your skin look better, but this is by far one of the most interesting things I’ve seen attributed to exercise. New recent studies have shown that some forms of exercise actually help you to think better, in effect making you smarter. Of course, not every kind of exercise actually translates to a boost in brain power.

What Works

Aerobic training has been linked multiple times over to a growth in grey matter, including a 2006 study at the University of Illinois that proved growth in both gray and white matter in the brain of older adults and set of later studies that linked aerobically fit elementary school aged children to better test scores. Basically, boosting the flow of oxygen in your body boosts the performance of your brain. It makes sense if you think about it – the better fed your brain is, the better it will perform.
Another possible link that has been studied more and more is the use of Yoga to help boost brain power. The reason for this is that most people generally do not know how to breath properly and Yoga teaches you how to control your breathing and provide the much needed oxygen to your brain when and where it is necessary.

What Doesn’t Work

On the other hand, while exercises that work your heart and boost circulation can improve your mental acuity, those that focus on strength resistance are likely to do almost nothing in terms of making you smarter. Lifting weights generally has no impact on brain activity and studies to test for it have only found the most fragile links. Generally, unless the brain benefits somehow from increased blood flow or oxygen in that blood, there is little or no link between non-aerobic exercises and increased intelligence.

Making Exercise Work for Your Brain Power

Generally speaking, your brain is only going to benefit from exercise if you can perform it regularly. For example, older individuals who exercise at least three times per week have shown a reduced risk of brain degeneration in the form of Alzheimer’s and Dementia – with a 40% reduction in many cases. Even people with as little as 15 minutes of exercise three days a week though can reduce their risks of these problems.

Of course, I don’t want anyone to think that by running two miles every day they will become the next Einstein. I find the study quite interesting, but in general, the effect seems as though it would be more related to general brain health, not performance – I know plenty of fit people who are dumb as rocks, and then I also know some unfit workaholics who are some of the smartest people I’ve ever met.  Genetics are genetics.  Of course, with this study in mind, it’s interesting to consider just how much more stupid some people might be if they never exercised. Now there’s a scary though.


Caroline Cardenas
Caroline Cardenas Signature

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nootropics, exercise, brain, smarter, aerobic,


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