Dr. John Day, Cardiologist

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7 Things Exercise Does To Your Brain

Is it hard to find the time to exercise?  Perhaps if you knew how exercise “re-wires” your brain, it would give you new willpower.  In this article, I share the latest medical research on the 7 things exercise does to your brain.

Becky’s Experience

Becky was a 38 year-old mom who came to see me for heart palpitations.  Since the birth of her third child, she never seemed to “bounce back.”

“I am always feeling palpitations in my chest,” she said.  “To make things worse, I often feel sad for no apparent reason and it is almost as if I have “brain fog,” she said.

“Are you exercising regularly?” I asked.

“That’s the problem,” she said.  “I’m afraid to exercise.  I’m worried that with the palpitations I might have a heart attack.”

To figure out what was going on, I asked Becky to wear a heart monitor for 30 days.  I also scheduled her for a stress test.

Fortunately, all of her tests came back just fine.  All she had were some benign premature heart beats.

I encouraged her to start exercising again and come back to see me again in a month.  Reluctant at first, she agreed to this plan.

One month later she was a changed person.

“How did it go?” I asked.

“At first it was hard,” she said.  “Knowing that the palpitations were benign, they didn’t bother me so much.  I’m much happier now.  The brain fog also went away.  My memory is better and my thinking clearer.”

Is there any scientific explanation for what happened to Becky?  Below are the 7 things exercise does to your brain according to the latest medical studies.

1. Makes You Happier

Have you ever wondered if an antidepressant would make you feel happier?

Four years after graduating from medical school, I came across this landmark study that caused me to rethink everything I had been taught about depression.  The study design was very simple.

Dr. James A. Blumenthal and colleagues from Duke University recruited 156 people suffering from a severe bout of depression.  Half of the patients were given the antidepressant, Zoloft, and half were prescribed an exercise program.  The exercise program wasn’t hard.  Just a total of 145 minutes of exercise each week.

Even though this study was funded by a drug company, to everyone’s surprise the patients prescribed “exercise,” did every bit as well as the group that was given Zoloft.  Not only did the group prescribed exercise also recover from their depression, they also became much more physically fit than the group prescribed Zoloft.

At the time, I wondered if the findings of this study were really true.  So often one study says one thing and then a few months later a new study comes to the opposite conclusion.

Since this study was published in 1999, there have now been many studies done that have all come to the same conclusion.  While the initial study resulted in a “tie” when it came to depression treatment, subsequent studies have shown than exercise beats antidepressants for the treatment of depression.  If you are currently taking an antidepressant, never stop a medication without the approval of your doctor.

While we aren’t 100% sure why exercise makes people feel happier, it likely has something to do with the feel-good endorphins which are released with exercise.  Another possibility is that moderate levels of exercise decrease inflammation.  New research suggests that depression may really just be inflammation of the brain.

2. Boosts Your Memory

Can you remember phone numbers like you once could in high school or college?

Your memories are stored in the part of your brain known as the hippocampus.  To keep memories intact, you need as many healthy nerve connections in the brain as possible.

If you don’t take care of your brain, over time these neurons and nerve connections in your hippocampus may fail.  Fortunately, studies show that exercise boosts nerve growth and new connections in the hippocampus area of the brain.

This memory enhancing effect of exercise is so powerful that it may even be passed on to your children.  For example, studies have shown that exercising during pregnancy increases the memory of your children.

How exercise boosts memory is not completely known.  However, it likely has something to do with increased levels of BDNF, or brain-derived neurotrophic factor.  BDNF can be though of as “brain fertilizer.”  To learn more about how to boost your BDNF levels, please read the article I wrote on BDNF (blog #81).

3. Gives You More Energy

“Why am I always so tired?” patients ask me everyday.  Indeed, this is the number one symptom patients report to me.

“The best energy pill I can give you is to exercise,” I typically respond.

Is fatigue, or a lack of energy, a physical or mental thing?  I suspect it is both.  Regardless, exercise works.

In a review of eight studies involving 1,518 people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, exercise was shown to be the most effective treatment for this condition.

4. Reduces Stress

Like Becky in the story above, do you often feel overwhelmed with everything you have to do?  I know this is something that I am always struggling with.

For me, my stress reducing drug is exercise.  This is what got me through medical school and my residency training.  Without a regular dose of exercise, I would never survive my stressful life as a cardiologist and as a father of 4 young children.

Indeed, many studies back up what I have long experienced.  Exercise decreases stress levels.  It even helps people who suffer from anxiety.

Once again, we’re not quite sure how exercise helps with stress.  Two likely candidates include increased endorphins or just better sleep at night from exercising.

5. Increases Your Brain Processing Speed

Have you ever struggled with a slow computer?  The same thing can happen to your brain.

While you can’t yet “buy a faster brain,” you can significantly speed up the processing power of the brain with exercise.

6. Frees You From Addictions

Do you suffer from a sugar addiction?  Based on the results of many studies, exercise may be one of the best tools you have to free yourself from any addiction.

While we aren’t yet sure how exercise helps to break addictions, it likely has something to do with normalizing the dopamine signaling and reward pathways in the brain.  Regardless of your addiction, studies show that exercise will help you break your addiction.  Thus, to take control of your brain, start exercising.

7. Improves Concentration

Are you easily distracted?  Based on the results of medical studies, one possible reason is that you may not be as physically active as you should be.

Being able to focus your mind helps you both at work and when listening to a child.  Many Fortune 500 CEO’s credit their success to their ability to focus and concentrate.  If you want to improve your concentration, exercise is your new best friend.

Final Thoughts

The evidence is clear, if you want a better brain you need to exercise regularly.  If you aren’t exercising now, talk with your doctor to make sure it is safe for you to start.  Exercise doesn’t mean you have to buy a gym membership.

Personally, I hate the gym.  My wife, on the other hand, loves the gym.

The very best exercise is the one you will do.  If you don’t like to exercise, keep exploring new ways to move your body until you can find something that you like.  It could be dancing, carrying your clubs on the golf course, or even taking a nightly walk in your neighborhood.

If you are strapped for time, be creative.  You may need to multitask to stay physically active.  For me, I would not be able to exercise on most days without my treadmill desk.

As my work requires me to spend many hours on the computer each day, I had to find a way to combine computer time with exercise time.  Even as I am writing this article, I am walking on my treadmill desk at 3 mph at a 4% grade.  While this may not seem like much, I have walked more than 10 miles uphill while writing this article.

How has exercise helped your brain?  Please share your experiences below so that others may be inspired to keep exercising.  As always, I will answer any question left below.