Move your body

Move Your Body, Sharpen Your Mind
Run--and nurture your brain
By Selene Yeager , Selene Yeager is a health journalist and author/coauthor of more than two dozen book titles.

"Physical activity can make people more mentally alert," says brain researcher Judy Cameron, PhD, of Oregon Health & Science University. "Now we're starting to understand why." Two lab studies revealed:


More Brain Food In Cameron's study, monkeys who ran on treadmills grew more of the blood vessels that supply brain cells with oxygen- and sugar-rich blood. Active monkeys navigated a complex maze twice as fast.


More--and Better-connected--Brain Cells In a mouse study, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers found that exercise stimulates production of a substance that prompts neurons to grow and link up.