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I have always encouraged my staff in every one of my business endeavors to incorporate aerobic exercise into their schedules. Not only because I’m considered a fitness freak or because walking, running, bicycling, swimming, or circuit training strengthens the immune system or because it stimulates the release of mood enhancers – known as endorphins that cause people to feel better about themselves and their environment - but because the resultant increased circulation to the exercising muscles also diverts more oxygen to the brain tissue. And I am of the belief the more oxygen to the gray matter, the more creative and more alert are the recipients.
Well, finally research is supporting my theory.
In a recent article entitled “Lobes of Steel” in the New York Times’ Play magazine (August 19, 2007) researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign assigned a group of elderly sedentary people to either an aerobic program or a regimen of stretching. The aerobic group walked for at least one hour three times a week. After six months of exercise, the brains of the walkers and stretchers were scanned using an MRI. The walkers showed a significant growth in several areas of the brain suggesting the increased aerobic circulation makes the brain more apt to grow new gray matter boosting memory and cognitive processing speed.
The study results raise the hope that walking – among other aerobic activities – can increase the brain’s capacity not only to produce new brain cells but also to add new blood vessels and strengthen neural connections, resulting in a stronger, faster brain.
So now when I scream at my staff to go move their feet to stimulate their minds I have scientific research to back my claims! -- PC
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