This post is by Anthony Savage of Sparta Health
In the strange situation the world is in today, health has never been more prevalent, with people searching for different ways they can live a healthier lifestyle. Most have turned to forms of physical fitness, whether that be at-home workouts, or going for a daily run or cycling. What a lot of people don’t realise is that whilst physical fitness is great for getting into shape and keeping your heart healthy, it also has an extremely positive impact on your brain function.
By having a more active lifestyle, you can greatly improve your quality of life and your overall life expectancy all due to how it positively effects your brain. How exactly? Well, read on!
What Can a Lack of Exercise do?
One of the best ways to get an idea of how important exercise is to your cognitive function, is to see the effect of what a lack of physical fitness can do to your brain. One study showed how a sample of patients who had poor physical health and, as a consequence, were suffering from heart failure, also presented with poor cognitive function [1]. Imaging of the patient’s brains showed a negative change in the shape and size of their cerebral cortex, including a reduced volume in their grey matter [1].
Any type of change in the shape or structure of your brain can have detrimental effects to all sorts of bodily functions, depending on the area of the brain affected. Therefore, if a lack of exercise can cause this to change, an increase in exercise can help prevent this from happening.
Exercise and Ageing
There are lots of neurodegenerative disorders linked with ageing, including Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia and Parkinson's disease which are extremely prevalent in today’s society, one factor being the world’s current ageing population. These disorders put a huge strain on healthcare, with all the medication and hospital beds needed in order to treat people and help them deal with their condition. However, there are ways that the symptoms and effects of some disorders can be helped, and neurodegeneration can be slowed down. Physical exercise is one of the main ways this can be done [2].
The science behind how exercise can improve the quality of life of those with age-related brain dysfunction isn’t entirely understood, however studies think that the energy expenditure from exercise helps to protect the brain in some way from the wasting away of brain tissue and cells that comes with ageing [2]. The overall result of the research has seen that by increasing an elderly person’s exercise output, they have a reduced need for medication, and so suffer less from the negative side effects that can come with some of those drugs [2]. This form of care and treatment for the elderly is extremely favourable as it is cheap and readily available, with no need for different types of chemicals and drugs [2].
Another important factor, is that a lack of exercise can lead to an increase in conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and heart failure [3] which all, in turn, weakens an individual’s immune system and can therefore leave them more vulnerable to disorders that could invade and impact their brain.
Benefits of Exercise for Children
Unfortunately, of recent times, schools have been taking a step back when it comes to providing students with physical education. However, this can actually be quite detrimental to the neurocognitive function in children [3]. There has been a link that shows aerobic exercise to greatly benefit a child’s mental health and ability [3]. One piece of research even found that there was a positive correlation between children who had access to more exercise throughout their school day, and children who were achieving higher academically [3]. A younger person’s brain is more able to change with stimulus and training, as it is in earlier stages of development and is more ‘susceptible’ to all types of learning. Therefore, keeping a child fit and active, can help not only exercise their muscles, but their brain too. It keeps their brain active at all times, rather than it being idle when children are sedentary.
This clearly shows what a positive impact exercise can have, not only in preventing degeneration of neuromuscular tissue or cells (as mentioned earlier), but also on actually improving the cognitive functioning of individuals.
Exercise Linked to Improvement in Cognitive Behavioural Diseases
One study [4] showed that physical exercise greatly helped children who suffer from Attention-Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). The study outlined how when a group of children who suffered from ADHD went swimming regularly, they had a considerable improvement in their executive brain function [4].
Research has shown that children with ADHD are also much more likely to encounter injuries [4], and therefore by being in a calm and safe place, such as a pool which is monitored and allows children to exercise with a reduced chance of physical injury, is extremely beneficial to them.
It has also been explained how exercise can actually reduce the need for a child with a neurocognitive disorder, such as ADHD, to be on medication [4]. This is because medication is often needed to help calm an individual and allow them to manage some of their impulsive behaviours [4], however physical exercise such as swimming is a great, and a completely natural, way to do this.
Another major benefit of physical exercise for children who have cognitive issues, such as ADHD, is that many types of disorders of the brain can impact motor skills [4]. Therefore, a physical activity such as swimming is a great way, and has been proven, to help improve the movement and mobility of children with disorders such as ADHD [4].
Ideas Behind How Exercise Benefits the Brain
Whilst the exact science of why physical fitness helps the brain isn’t entirely known, there are lots of theories and ideas of what the correlation and reason could be. Some scientists think that the beneficial effect exercise has on cell proliferation (an increase in the number of cells as a result of cell growth and cell division) could be taking action [1] and helping to prevent the degeneration of cells and tissues that can happen, for example, with ageing. It is also believed that exercise can promote the formation of neurons in the brain [1], which are essential to the continual and correct development of the brain, and so this is something particularly relevant in how exercise can be beneficial to the brain function of children.
Overall, physical fitness has a major positive impact on your brain function. By increasing the physical activity you do on a daily basis, you are likely to greatly reduce your risk of suffering from neurodegenerative disorders that are common with age, and you may actually see an improvement in your cognitive function, and perhaps an increased rate of learning. It is especially beneficial to children and may help to prevent and reduce cognitive behavioural issues.
About Anthony Savage
Anthony Savage is the Medical Services Manager at Sparta Health, having joined the team in 2017 and is responsible for the overall operational delivery of our high quality services to our clients. He has a solid background in workplace physiology, as well over 12 years of delivering, and holding senior management positions, for leading injury and condition management providers.
He is known for his innovative approach in his design and execution of services and his ability to build enduring relationships.