How To Improve Brain Health With Movement Based Exercises… Which Then Improves Everything Else!
Bumping Up Your Mental Performance Through Movement.
Let’s look at a great article that was recently published in Frontiers in Neuroscience. The topic is neurological / brain health and movement.
It sounds a little complicated, but hang in there. It’s both interesting and helpful in understanding why movement and exercise is so beneficial for you, your family, and everyone else you know.
“Groundbreaking research shows that neurological health depends as much on signals sent by the body’s large, leg muscles to the brain as it does on directives from the brain to the muscles.”
This communication from our body through movement based nerves which drives brain activity, health, and growth.
The study looked at leg movements and weight bearing activity in mice.
It doesn’t just happen in leg movements or only in mice though!
Losses of movement, as seen in this study, cause losses of brain health.
This drive or loss of drive to brain happens in all of us and in our kids.
This basic concept has been talked about and used clinically essentially since the beginning of functional neurology in chiropractic.
Chiropractic care and particularly functional neurology looks to identify changes in the nervous system that have an effect on the body looking closely at many factors including posture and movements.
Treatment often includes using movement based treatments including the Chiropractic adjustment to make a change, improving function.
From the Neuroscience article…
“Limiting physical activity decreased the number of neural stem cells by 70 percent compared to a control group of mice, which were allowed to roam.
The research shows that using the legs, particularly in weight-bearing exercise, sends signals to the brain that are vital for the production of healthy neural cells, essential for the brain and nervous system.
Cutting back on exercise makes it difficult for the body to produce new nerve cells – some of the very building blocks that allow us to handle stress and adapt to challenge in our lives.”
Leave a Reply