Scientists used to believe that once you were old enough to legally drink, the fate of your brain was sealed — you had received your lifetime allowance of nerve cells (otherwise known as neurons), and if you wanted or needed more you were out of luck.
But it turns out this just isn’t true. Not only does your brain keep developing throughout your life, but new nerve cells aren’t so hard to come by after all. In fact, there is one activity that is proven to create new neurons in your brain and make you a whole lot smarter and healthier.
But if you’re wondering whether you really want or need new neurons, trust me, you do. Neurons are little cells with a big responsibility. They help you think, learn new information, remember that information, move, see, smell — pretty much everything.
And if you’ve ever known someone with a devastating disease like ALS, you’ve witnessed the importance of neurons firsthand.
In ALS, motor neurons (which control your body’s muscles, organs and glands) progressively die, causing total paralysis and eventually death. The symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are also caused by the death of neurons.
So I think it’s safe to say that you can benefit from a few more neurons in your life… but how do you get them?
The answer is exercise. But not just any type of exercise — sustained aerobic exercise.
Sustained aerobic exercise (perhaps better known as “cardio”) is any exercise that stimulates your heart rate and your breathing rate for a continuous period of time (20 minutes or more) — like running, biking or playing tennis.
Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä in Finland studied the effects of exercise on rats and their neurons, and found that rats who enjoyed running long distances had two to three times more new neurons in their hippocampus than sedentary rats after eight weeks.
But what’s even more interesting is that these rat runners also had significantly more new neurons than rats who did resistance training or a form of strength training known as high intensity training (HIT).
This may explain why runners get that characteristic “runner’s high” —their brains are literally in the process of creating new neurons. But this euphoric feeling (and the new neurons that come with it) isn’t limited to running, it can happen after any aerobic workout.
If you’re not a runner, try an aerobics class, dancing, cross-country skiing, kickboxing, swimming —anything that gets your heart pumping will keep your brain growing.
Sources:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160208083606.htm
http://www.brainfacts.org/brain-basics/neuroanatomy/articles/2012/the-neuron/
