“Beef Up” Your Brain with Physical Exercise
There are weeks when my exercise time seems to require greater mental effort than usual. Y’know, when my ‘get up and go has gone up and went’ leaving my motivation sorely lacking. Can you relate?
Life can sometimes drain us, physically or emotionally. During these times we might be more inclined to pass on any activity which would use up our remaining energies. Yet, when we cross physical exercise off our To Do list, we shortchange not only our bodies, but our minds as well. The fact is, when you and I get our hearts and muscles pumping, not only do we fortify ourbodies(and glorify our Savior) with our “sacrifice of praise”, we actually strengthen our brains, as well!
Sound too good to be true? Well, contrary to what you may have heard or read; you were not born with a finite number of brain cells. The truth is, our brains were created with the capacity to churn out new brain cells when old ones die—which, by the way, starts to occur at a steady rate after the age of 30. So, while brain cell loss is a natural part of aging, brain cell replenishment can still be had.
While it’s fairly well known that using your brain for “brainy things” and feeding it the right stuff—specifically “heart-healthy foods”—will help keep your mental muscle in good working order, I’ve learned of a fascinating (and powerful) way to grow new brain cells and to protect the connections between existing cells with something I do already—physical exercise!
When you and I stress our bodies with physical exertion, our brain matter responds by producing a fascinating substance, brain derived neurotrophic factor, or “Miracle Gro” for the brain, for simplicity’s sake. This “Miracle Gro” stimulates the brain to birth new cells so that we can, in effect, build a bigger mental muscle.
It’s never too late to replenish your lost brain cells. One scientific study placed a group of sedentary, 71-year old men on a weekly exercise regime. Over the next six years these men showed a 50% decrease in the occurrence of dementia when compared to their non-exercising counterparts. Now there’s a pudding with a whole lotta proof!
So, let’s commit to one another, and to ourselves, to keep our bodies engaged in purposeful movement so we can procure beefier brains with strong mental acuity.