Vivian Johnson
Eng 111
26 Feb. 2016
Healthy Body, Healthy Mind Everyone knows being physically fit has a variety of benefits to your health. Can you imagine if working out or exercising could actually make you smarter? There is an increasing amount of research to prove this theory is true. From weight lifting to simple exercises like jogging- any exercise can potentially increase your brain power. It is possible that exercising can increase your intelligence, along with many other benefits to your health. Exercise is a commonly known word in society today. It is classified as a bodily or mental exertion, especially for the sake of training or improvement of health or a putting into action, use, operation, or effect. Simple exercise can prevent a number of health conditions such as: heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, back pain, osteoporosis, obesity, cancer, poor posture, little energy, along with many more conditions. As BBC puts it, “Your bones, joints and muscles - especially your heart - will actually stay younger if you keep them busy. If you are not physically active you increase your health risks in many ways.” Exercising has many benefits to your health. A few good benefits are as follows: improve mental health and mood, strengthen bones and muscles, increase your chances of living longer, it can prevent colds and the flu, release stress and anxiety, and improve digestion and brain health, which leads me to me next point about the brain. Two studies presented at the recent Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Alzheimer’s disease showed that older people who exercised more had significantly less cognitive impairment than those who did not spend time working out. Working out is so good for your brain because it increases the blood being pumped to the brain and encourages higher levels of healthy chemicals called brain-derived nerve growth factors. If you're not convinced by this study, there are many more to prove this theory to be true. In a study performed by B.C. Researchers, some conclusive research was found by doing a six-month strength training program that targeted women with mild cognitive impairment, who complained of memory problems, the women reported that the training helped improve their attention, problem-solving and decision-making brain functions. "What our results show is that resistance training can indeed improve both your cognitive performance and your brain function," said Prof. Teresa Liu-Ambrose, who led the study at the University of British Columbia. Another convincing study is done by a research team including Kirk Erickson, a psychology professor at the University of Pittsburgh, in an article written by Katherine Harmon in Scientific America that talks about how aerobic exercise bulks up the hippocampus, improving memory and other brain functions. They concluded that "increased hippocampal volume after the exercise intervention should translate to improved memory function.” There has been multiple studies done in the past few years that have all accumulated to the simple statement that by performing exercise, such as aerobic training, can significantly improve your overall brain function, cognitive abilities, and memory retention. In conclusion, it has been proven that there is an increase in brain health in those who exercise rather than those who do not. In all seriousness, exercise over a period of time has a variety of benefits for your body AND your mind, proving the fact that exercise does, in fact, make you smarter. With the gathered evidence and research of how exactly exercise improves brain function and overall health, I would like to indicate just what this new information can do for us as a society. First, I would like to point out that there are many times in our life where we are required to do things we don't veritably want to do. Whether it's school, work, board meetings, counseling, or any other commotion we are involved in, most everyone has something that they attend but do not necessarily enjoy. For my next point, I would like to presume that with everything we do in a single day, or week, we don't always stop to think about ourselves and how we do things. If everyone knew just how important our health is in this life, you would think society would change its ways to suit the needs of the current being. So the next time you go to school and “improve your knowledge,” or the next time you go to a board meeting and “discuss new ideas,” think of how completely different it could be if there was a way you could not only be attending that event, but if perhaps it was in a different setting; one to discuss ideas while playing basketball or attending your average college class while doing yoga or some other form of exercise. How different would this world actually be if instead of focusing on all the information being shoved in your head, only to soon forget what was just obtained, but rather, applying that new information with the guidance of a simple exercise to actually improve your ability to learn while aiding in memory retention? With this new information of exercise correlating with brain health-why would anyone settle for anything less than what they're entitled to? Everyone has the opportunity to increase their ability to learn, their ability to remember important knowledge, their ability to increase their brain power. In conclusion, I believe this new information is a new beginning. I believe that one day, people will begin to realize that they only get one life and that they get to chose if they want to get the most out of it and increase their current abilities and opportunities, or if they chose to keep living the way they always have- what is most comfortable to them. With this evidence on how exercise can improve overall brain function, I believe new chances, ideas, and innovations will be created. And maybe, everything we do can be an activity for success, or a chance to increase overall health and wellness to our body and our mind.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/features/health/healthyliving/exerciserisk.shtml https://www.alz.org/aaic/releases_2015/Thurs1130amET.asp http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/weight-training-staves-off-dementia-in-older-women-1.1188553
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/aerobic-exercise-bulks-up-hippocampus-improving-memory-in-older-adults/