Effects on brain chemistry
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We all know that exercise is good for us and can improve our health and make us feel better, yet most of us don’t actually know why. The main reason is that exercise makes our brain function at its best. Physical activity is crucial to the way we think and feel, and plays a significant role in regulating and improving our neurotransmitters and bolstering our brain’s infrastructure. The brain responds like most muscles do by growing with use and withering with inactivity. The neurons in the brain connect to each other like leaves on branches, and exercise causes those branches to grow and bloom with new buds, thus enhancing and improving our brain function.
The brain is, of course, very complex and much of what goes on is still not really understood. However, it is know that many of our thoughts, behaviours and emotions are controlled by chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters and four key neurotransmitters are:
Serotonin – is responsible for mood, anxiousness, self-esteem and impulsive and compulsive behaviour.
Beta-endorphin – is responsible for modulating emotional and physical pain. It contributes to feelings of self-esteem, euphoria and emotional confidence.
Norepinephrine – affects arousal, alertness, attention and mood.
Dopamine – is vital to movement, attention, cognition, motivation and pleasure (and addiction).
Ideally, we would all have regulated and optimal levels of these neurotransmitters so we feel happy, well balanced and confident, and our thoughts, behaviours and emotions are how we would like them to be and regarded as ‘normal’. However, for many people this is not the case and their neurotransmitters are lower than optimal and poorly regulated, leading to a range of emotional and mental health issues which also affect physical health.
Exercise and physical activity is a fantastic way of helping to elevate and regulate these chemicals and make us happier, more alert, less stressed, less anxious, more balanced, less reactive, etc. Our brain will respond very quickly to exercise and positive results and outcomes can be seen immediately, as well as continued and sustained benefits. Our brain is so important and should be given the respect and attention that is necessary, and the good news is that exercise can be incredibly effective for our brain and therefore for our overall health and wellbeing. Do not underestimate what exercise can do for your brain!
‘Exercise is a wonder drug that hasn’t been bottled.’
Improved learning, memory and cognitive behaviour
Exercise increases the level of brain chemicals called growth factors, which help make new brain cells and establish new connections between brain cells to help us learn and improve our memory. Interestingly, complicated activities like playing tennis or taking a dance class provide the biggest brain boost, as you are challenging your brain even more when you have to think about coordination. Like muscles, you have to stress your brain cells to get them to be more active and to grow.
Complicated activities also improve our capacity to learn by enhancing our attention and concentration skills, according to German researchers who found that high-school students scored better on high-attention tasks after doing 10 minutes of a complicated fitness routine compared to those doing 10 minutes of regular activity, and those who hadn’t exercised at all scored the worst.
The benefits of exercise come directly from its ability to reduce insulin resistance, reduce inflammation, and stimulate the release of the growth factors mentioned, which are chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells. Researchers also found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.
Exercise helps memory and thinking through indirect means, too, as physical activity can improve mood and sleep, and reduce stress and anxiety; problems in these areas frequently cause or contribute to cognitive impairment. So if you want to improve your alertness, learning ability and memory and reduce your risk of cognitive decline and potentially associated conditions like dementia then be more active, because this exercises the brain as well as the body.
The brain is, of course, very complex and much of what goes on is still not really understood. However, it is know that many of our thoughts, behaviours and emotions are controlled by chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters and four key neurotransmitters are:
Serotonin – is responsible for mood, anxiousness, self-esteem and impulsive and compulsive behaviour.
Beta-endorphin – is responsible for modulating emotional and physical pain. It contributes to feelings of self-esteem, euphoria and emotional confidence.
Norepinephrine – affects arousal, alertness, attention and mood.
Dopamine – is vital to movement, attention, cognition, motivation and pleasure (and addiction).
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| Effects on brain chemistry |
Exercise and physical activity is a fantastic way of helping to elevate and regulate these chemicals and make us happier, more alert, less stressed, less anxious, more balanced, less reactive, etc. Our brain will respond very quickly to exercise and positive results and outcomes can be seen immediately, as well as continued and sustained benefits. Our brain is so important and should be given the respect and attention that is necessary, and the good news is that exercise can be incredibly effective for our brain and therefore for our overall health and wellbeing. Do not underestimate what exercise can do for your brain!
‘Exercise is a wonder drug that hasn’t been bottled.’
Improved learning, memory and cognitive behaviour
Exercise increases the level of brain chemicals called growth factors, which help make new brain cells and establish new connections between brain cells to help us learn and improve our memory. Interestingly, complicated activities like playing tennis or taking a dance class provide the biggest brain boost, as you are challenging your brain even more when you have to think about coordination. Like muscles, you have to stress your brain cells to get them to be more active and to grow.
Complicated activities also improve our capacity to learn by enhancing our attention and concentration skills, according to German researchers who found that high-school students scored better on high-attention tasks after doing 10 minutes of a complicated fitness routine compared to those doing 10 minutes of regular activity, and those who hadn’t exercised at all scored the worst.
The benefits of exercise come directly from its ability to reduce insulin resistance, reduce inflammation, and stimulate the release of the growth factors mentioned, which are chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells. Researchers also found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.
Exercise helps memory and thinking through indirect means, too, as physical activity can improve mood and sleep, and reduce stress and anxiety; problems in these areas frequently cause or contribute to cognitive impairment. So if you want to improve your alertness, learning ability and memory and reduce your risk of cognitive decline and potentially associated conditions like dementia then be more active, because this exercises the brain as well as the body.
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