Exercise that Makes you Smarter

The correlation between exercise and health has been a hot topic of research now for over a decade.  Ten years ago scientists at the Salk Institute in California published a ground-breaking study that linked exercise to the stimulation of new brain cells.  Since then, publications on the benefits of exercise have become hugely popular.  In fact, typing "benefits of exercise" into a google browser yields over 6 million hits.  Exercise benefits include improving your mood, helping to manage your weight, combating chronic disease, boosting your energy level, promoting better sleep, and above all...it's fun!

The fundamental question that scientists have been asking themselves is what kind of exercise is the most beneficial to a person's cognitive health.  The options are endless - yoga, weight lifting, running, bull riding - but recently researchers have tried to tackle this seemingly unanswerable question.  And what, you may ask, has been found to be the exercise that makes you smarter.....running.  It is thought that aerobic activity, such as running, has the ability to pump blood into areas of the brain that in turn start molecular cascades that create new neuron and brain connections.  The dramatic change in blood flow that occurs during aerobic activity is, in some ways, making you smarter.  So, get on your running shoes (or soccer cleats), and do your body...and mind...a favor.

For more information on this incredible and fascinating topic, please visit the NY Times