As I’ve hammered into my own head and yours over and over, working out is, I feel, essential to living a healthy and fulfilled life. But that’s not just my opinion. In fact, some would say that it’s an unshakeable fact, and that it even affects your intelligence. Workouts, as we know, are beneficial to our weight control, our cardiovascular system and our bone and joint health. There’s scientific evidence that exercise can help yet another area of our body, our brain.

According to Fred Gage, lead researcher at Salk Institute, their research has already shown that, in mice, regular physical exercise has increased the birth and survival of new brain cells in the hippocampus. The hippocampus of the brain is vital to memory and learning.

Furhter clinical research is continuing to try to establish a connection between regular physical exercise and the prevention of certain diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Regular workouts do improve memory and learning as physical exercise promotes new brain cell growth.

Mental activities, like crossword puzzles, sudoku, reading and card playing are still a great way to keep your mind active and your brain sharper. These activities should be encouraged and continued especially to slow the aging process to the brain.

In addition to the mentally challenging and stimulating activities,don’t forget to maintain a physical workout routine. Not only will you look and feel better physically, but your mind and memory will function at the optimum level.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Fitness Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.