Current Event #4

The New York Times post, "How Exercise Can Jog the Memory," talks about the relation between exercise and other processes of the body. Through numerous studies, it has been proven that exercise is capable of influencing brain functioning and emotions.  A new study on the memory impacts of exercise suggests that it is a more complicated relationship than previously supposed.  An experiment at Dartmouth last month that tested long term exercise on memory performance.  The volunteers where largely sedentary before the study but some were required to exercise regularly over a 4week period.  Half of the exercising group walked or jogged before the testing, and the other half didn't. The non exercising group followed a similar procedure so half exercised that day for the first time since the start of the study, and the rest didn't.  The people who exercised over the month and exercised that day had the largest changes.  The group that exercised over the month, but didn't that day also reported higher scores and wellness but not to the same extent.  The group that didn't exercise over the month of that day had no change.  Finally the group that didn't exercise over the month, but did that day were more agitated and anxious than they were on the previous visit.  This suggests that exercise is recommended overall for long term brain health, but there it is not cut and dried for how the brain responds to exercise.

I was mostly just looking for a fourth article, and this one seemed unobjectionable.  I think how systems in the body are tied together is interesting too.  New studies that add to the every growing list of the positives of exercise is also good to keep in mind.  The article was well written, and it was also interesting.  I enjoyed reading it, and thought the manner in which they performed the test was clever. 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/how-exercise-can-jog-the-memory/?ref=health