We all know exercise is good for us, but an active lifestyle can give you all sorts of health benefits. Here's how.
Photo by The New York Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune
We've looked at how you can exercise your brain by exercising your body, boosting all sorts of great things like memory, cognitive capacity, and resistance to neurodegenerative diseases. This works because we have a bunch of dormant stem cells in the brain just waiting to be stimulated. Physical activity provides that necessary stimulation.
A growth factor called bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) works to control cell division throughout the body, including in the brain. The more BMP, the less growth. Regulatory factors like BMP are essential to a healthy body; studies have shown that the absence of BMP activity is linked to colon cancer. But as we get older, higher counts of BMP accumulate in the brain and keep our neural stem cells asleep. This is where exercise comes in. Within one week of being given an exercise wheel, mice showed half as much BMP signaling in their brains.
If you're planning on enjoying your old age, packing some physical activity into your day is a good start.
Send an email to Adam Dachis, the author of this post, at adachis@lifehacker.com.
