How running makes us not only healthier but also smarter

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Physically active older people stay in clear mind and good health for much longer compared to their more passive peers. I think you have noticed that after any training you feel an influx of not only physical, but also mental strength: it is easier to think, the right decisions are found much faster, and crisis situations do not seem so hopeless.

Running is an aerobic exercise, and according to scientists, it generates much more energy for the brain than just fitness or going to the gym.

While running, we pump our heart and lungs, and this, in turn, improves the functioning of the cardiovascular system. Our pump works better, oxygenated and glucose-rich blood is delivered to the brain faster, and we begin to think faster.

New thinking

According to Dr. Jay Carson Smith, who studies the effects of exercise on brain function, running stimulates the formation of new nerve cells (neurogenesis) and new blood vessels (angiogenesis). Neurogenesis and angiogenesis increase the volume of brain tissue, which usually decreases as we age.

A 2011 study by the National Academy of Sciences found that physically active older adults had 2% more volume in their hippocampus, an area associated with learning and memory, compared to inactive peers. In addition, running saves those nerve cells that should have died out with age.

Good memory and attention to detail

The next advantage of running is to improve memory and prevent age-related dementia, that is, senile marasmus.

Dementia (lat. Dementia - madness) is acquired dementia, a persistent decrease in cognitive activity with the loss to one degree or another of previously acquired knowledge and practical skills and the difficulty or impossibility of acquiring new ones. Unlike mental retardation (oligophrenia), dementia congenital or acquired in infancy, which is an underdevelopment of the psyche, dementia is a breakdown of mental functions that occurs as a result of brain damage, often in youth as a result of addictive behavior, and most often in old age (senile dementia; from Latin senilis - senile, old man). Senile dementia is popularly called senile dementia.

The human hippocampus usually suffers the most from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. In 2010, an experiment was conducted with mice. One group was "running" - active, and the second - passive. As a result, active adult mice were able to grow new neurons for themselves at an already mature age and, thanks to this, they could distinguish colors and shapes much better than their sedentary counterparts. Earlier human studies have also supported this theory. These types of cognitive skills, including alertness, help prevent senility. So, if you don't want to become a grandmother or a grandfather who, for the hundredth time in the last minute, ask their grandchildren if they had dinner, run!

The memorization of new words is 20% better after an intense training than after a lighter version.

Clear planning

Another benefit of running is that it improves your planning ability. This is due to the fact that it includes your frontal (frontal) cortex and you start to think faster, do not get confused in details and remember well what and when you need to do it. Research in 2010 showed that people who took a light jog or other physical activity performed much better on mental tests than those who were not physically active before testing.

By the way, you can take note of this! If you need to draw up a work plan, and there is a mess in your head, urgently arrange for yourself a five-minute physical activity.

Improved sorting of information

As mentioned above, running improves memory and helps fight neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease. And this is not just memory improvement - it is an improvement in sorting and finding the information you need. Studies conducted with people in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease have shown that physically active people remember the right names faster. Brain scans revealed increased activity in the caudate nucleus, which is located in the midbrain just below the corpus callosum. This part of the brain is also involved in motor functions and maintains "memory circuits." That is, running improves the quality of the signals that are transmitted through these circuits, which means that you have better and faster access to those millions of details that are stored in your memory.

Positive attitude

Running is also a great cure for depression! And it works in the same way as special drugs, helping to detain neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine in synapses a little longer. It cheers you up, and the world ceases to seem so gray, dull and hopeless.

It turns out that you can really run away from problems. Have a nice weekend and a productive workout!