Exercise grows new brain cells

[miss diesel]

TweetThis explains why we are so smart I wonder why some people still believe that being muscular means "no brain".

Exercise Grows New Brain Cells
LiveScience.com

Exercise stimulates the growth of new brain cells, a new study on rats finds. The new cells could be the key to why working out relieves depression.

Previous research showed physical exercise can have antidepressant effects, but until now scientists didn’t fully understand how it worked.

Astrid Bjornebekk of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and her colleagues studied rats that had been genetically tweaked to show depressive behaviors, plus a second group of control rats. For 30 days, some of the rats had free access to running wheels and others did not.


Then, to figure out if running turned the down-and-out rats into happy campers, the scientists used a standard “swim test.” They measured the amount of time the rats spent immobile in the water and the time they spent swimming around in active mode. When depressed, rats spend most of the time not moving.


“In the depressed rats, running had an antidepressant-like effect after running for 30 days,” Bjornebekk told LiveScience. The once-slothful rodents spent much more time in active swimming compared with the non-running depressed rats.


The researchers also examined the hippocampus region of the brain, involved in learning and memory. Neurons there increased dramatically in the depressed rats after wheel-running.


Past studies have found that the human brain’s hippocampus shrinks in depressed individuals, a phenomenon thought to cause some of the mental problems often linked with depression.


“The hippocampus formation is one of the regions they have actually seen structural changes in depressed patients,” Bjornebekk said.


Running had a similar effect as common antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on lifting depression.


The research is published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

[Dr.Max]

TweetI am guessing that this study only concludes that aerobic exercise helps to stop depression. I wonder how aerobic exercise like weight lifting effects depression.

I have always been told about the runner’s high. It is believed that the body elevates dopamine in the brain after long bouts of exercise. This could be the anti-depression the study is talking about.

Personally I hate to run long distances.
When I have to, I usually just thing about my beautiful girlfriend.
That usually cheers me up, but I don’t know if I would call that the runner's high.

Dr.Max

[Kruzzer]

TweetI guess some of us have a little bit of a brain. Huh
KZ

[Stacker69]

TweetI know I certainly feel better when I've been working out than if I haven't for a long time. My mood tends to be better. I tend to be more alert. Think I sleep better too. Lots of other good things.

Plenty of smart bodybuilders out there. I don't know where the "dumb bodybuilder" stereotype came from. Maybe some of those jealous out-of-shape people.

[funbos]

Tweet

I don't know where the "dumb bodybuilder" stereotype came from. Maybe some of those jealous out-of-shape people.

thats wright bro