While we know
that exercise can create new brain cells and change the way in which it
operates, it now appears that a lazy lifestyle can also reshape your mind alertness, brain function and heart performance.
A new study lays
bare the possibility that shunning exercise could affect a person's neurons,
impacting not just the brain but potentially damaging the heart as well.
Scientists have
found a regular gym session could sharpen the mind in exactly the same way as
it increases fitness levels in the body, according to Cambridge University
scientists.
A regular jog
leads to the growth of new cells in the area of the brain which boosts your
memory, a study has found. It is not clear
why aerobic exercise triggers the growth of grey matter (known as neurogenesis)
but it may be linked to increased blood flow or higher levels of hormones that
are released while exercising.
The research,
published in the The Journal Of Comparative Neurology, was conducted at Wayne
State University School of Medicine and was conducted on rats. Half of the rats
were put in cages with running wheels, while the remaining animals were housed
in cages without.
The rats confined
with wheels were soon running for around three hours a day, while the others
adopted a sedentary lifestyle.After almost
three months, the animals were injected with a dye that colors specific neurons
in the brain. In this case, the scientists wanted to mark neurons in the
animals’ rostral ventrolateral medulla, the portion of the brain that controls
breathing and other unconscious activities, such as regulating blood flow.
The research may
have implications for humans as we have the same brain region, which functions
in a similar way. The
scientists looked at the brains of their rats and found major differences
between the two groups in the shape of some of the neurons in that region of
the brain.
The neurons in
the brains of the running rats were the same as they had been at the start of
the study, but the sedentary rats had grown new 'branches', making them more
sensitive to stimuli.
This increased
sensitivity can lead to problems, said Patrick Mueller, an associate professor
of physiology at Wayne State University who oversaw the new study.He said
'overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system contributes to cardiovascular
disease.' If blood vessels
constrict too much, too little or too often, it can lead to high blood pressure
and damage to the cardiovascular system. The findings are
important because it increases knowledge about the myriad ways in which a lack
of exercise can cause heart disease, as well as how inactivity can change the
very make-up of our brains.
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