How Does Exercise Help Your Brain & Your Body?

Almost everyone would agree that exercise improves your health, but exactly how does that happen?

Part of the answer lies in the ability of exercise to change genetic expression; by activating some good genes, and deactivating some bad ones. Exercise has found to induce immediate changes in the patterns of genes found in your muscle cells. A study published in the journal Cell Metabolism in 2012 showed that while the underlying genetic code in the muscle remains unchanged, vigorous exercise, even if brief, causes structural and chemical changes in the DNA molecules within the muscles.

A study suggests that when you exercise, your body almost immediately experiences genetic activation that increases the production of fat-burning proteins.

Previous studies have also identified and measured a wide variety of biochemical changes that occur during exercise. More than 20 different metabolites are affected, including compounds that help stabilize your blood sugar. All of these biochemical changes create a positive feedback loop, resulting in improved health and physical performance.

Some of the latest research in high intensity exercise involves myokines, which are a class of cell-signaling proteins. Myokines are produced by muscle fibers and can combat diseases such as metabolic syndrome and cancer. The cytokines produced in muscle are very anti-inflammatory. They also increase your insulin sensitivity and your glucose utilization inside the muscle. High intensity strength training is likely the most effective in terms of activating myokines.

The Many Biological Effects of Exercise:

A number of biological effects occur when you work out. This includes changes in your:

1. Muscles, which use glucose and ATP for contraction and movement. To create more ATP, your body needs extra oxygen, so breathing increases and your heart starts pumping more blood to your muscles. Without sufficient oxygen, lactic acid will form instead. Tiny tears in your muscles make them grow bigger and stronger as they heal.

2. Lungs. As your muscles call for more oxygen (as much as 15 times more oxygen than when you’re at rest), your breathing rate increases. Once the muscles surrounding your lungs cannot move any faster, you’ve reached what’s called your VO2 max, which is your maximum capacity of oxygen use. The higher your VO2 max, the fitter you are.

3. Heart. As mentioned, your heart rate increases with physical activity to supply more oxygenated blood to your muscles. The fitter you are, the more efficiently your heart can do this, allowing you to work out longer and harder. As a side effect, this increased efficiency will also reduce your resting heart rate. Your blood pressure will also decrease as a result of new blood vessels forming.

4. Joints and bones, as exercise can place as much as five or six times more than your body weight on them. Peak bone mass is achieved in adulthood and then begins a slow decline, but exercise can help you to maintain healthy bone mass as you get older. Weight-bearing exercise is actually one of the most effective remedies against osteoporosis, as your bones are very porous and soft, and as you get older your bones can easily become less dense and hence, more brittle, especially if you are inactive.

Exercise Is Important for Optimal Brain Health:

Mounting research also shows that exercise is as important for your brain function as it is for the rest of your body. The increased blood flow allows your brain to almost immediately function better. As a result, you tend to feel more focused after a workout. More importantly though, exercising regularly will prompt the growth of new brain cells. In your hippocampus, these new brain cells help boost memory and learning. It also helps preserve both gray and white matter in your brain, which prevents cognitive deterioration that can occur with age.

Genetic changes occur in the brain too. The increased blood flow adapts your brain to turn different genes on or off. Many of these changes help protect against diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. A number of neurotransmitters are also triggered, such as endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, and GABA. Some of these are well-known for their role in mood control. Not surprisingly, exercise is one of the most effective prevention and treatment strategies for depression.

Three of the mechanisms by which exercise produces these beneficial changes in your brain are:

1. Increasing Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). Exercise stimulates the production of a protein called FNDC5, which in turn triggers the production of BDNF, which has remarkable rejuvenating abilities. In your brain, BDNF both preserves existing brain cells and activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, effectively making your brain grow larger.

2. Decreasing BMP and boosting Noggin: Bone-morphogenetic protein (BMP) slows down the creation of new neurons, thereby reducing neurogenesis. If you have high levels of BMP, your brain grows slower and less nimble. Exercise reduces the impact of BMP, so that your adult stem cells can continue performing their vital functions of keeping your brain agile.

In animal research, mice with access to running wheels reduced the BMP in their brains by half in just one week. In addition, they also had a notable increase in another brain protein called Noggin, which acts as a BMP antagonist. So, exercise not only reduces the detrimental effects of BMP, it simultaneously boosts the more beneficial Noggin as well. This complex interplay between BMP and Noggin appears to be yet another powerful factor that helps ensure the proliferation and youthfulness of your neurons.

3. Reducing plaque formation: By altering the way damaging proteins reside inside your brain, exercise may help slow the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

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