Lets all go for a run: does exercise really help the brain?
Should I go run a marathon, join a yoga class, or head off to the gym? Is it really worth the time and effort? Afterall, sitting down and watching television can seem just as appealing. Why even bother working out? The reasons to work out may be greater than you think. Physical activity can make you feel good, keep you in shape, keep you healthy, but now researchers also are finding biological evidence that exercise benefits specific brain mechanisms. Just as exercise improves muscle tone and function, it may also have similar effects on the brain.
Some people have thought that exercise positively affects the brain as well as the body. Preliminary evidence suggests that physically active people have lower rates of anxiety and depression than sedentary people do (2). It seems logical that an active lifestyle would help the brain. However, the scientific observations were lacking. Now several biological studies indicate that working out does benefit the brain. This new insight may point more towards the notion that exercise has overall health benefits and also may lead to specialized physical activity programs for patients (1). Exercise may improve mental health by helping the brain cope better with stress, according to research into the effect of exercise on neurochemicals involved in the body's stress response (2). These findings come from animal as well as human studies and are leading to a better understanding of the overall health rewards of exercise and heightened support for exercise regimens that could aid recovery from a wide range of illnesses. Furthermore, the ongoing research indicates that specialized exercise regimens may help repair damaged or aged b...
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...fers,American Psychological Association
http://helping.apa.org/daily/neurala.html
3)Jogging May Make You Smarter, Study Says , Reuters Health
http://nootropics.com/exercise/index.html
4)Running increases cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the adult mouse dentate gyrus , National Neuroscience 1999 Mar; 2(3):266-70
http://nootropics.com/neurogenesis/
5)Mental exercise keeps the brain in motion, Canadian Press News Article, Health News, Tuesday, May 18, 1999
http://www.canoe.ca/Health9905/18_fitness.html
6)Exercise and Your Brain , Southwestern Medical Center
http://www4.utsouthwestern.edu/library/consumer/brainXrcise.htm
7)Exercise 'could halt mental decline' , BBC News, Tuesday, 16 January, 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1118603.stm
8)Exercise For Your Brain's Sake , Scientific American News
http://www.sciam.com/missing.cfm
Ratey, John J. (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. New York, NY: Little Brown and Company.
Klein, E. (2014). A health industry expert on ‘the fundamental problem with Obamacare.’ The Washington Post. Retrieved on 2/8/14 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/09/a-health-industry-expert-on-the-fundamental-problem-with-obamacare
Miller, H. D. (2009). From volume to value: better ways to pay for health care. Health Affairs
The United States spends vast amounts on its healthcare, while falling short of achieving superiority over other developed nations. One cannot overlook that the deepening recession has left many without jobs and therefore lacking health insurance. According to Fairhall and Steadman, (2009), even though the recession is hard on all, it is worse on the uninsured due to health care and insurance cost rising faster than incomes. Nevertheless, even those with jobs are lacking in health insurance due to employers, who provide insurance, are increasingly dropping their sponsored insurance. Many find that purchasing a health policy or paying for medical care out-of-pocket is cost prohibitive. “Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed Americans has increased by 3.6 million,” (Fairhall & Steadman, 2009). In 2009 it was stated that approximately 46 million Americans were uninsured, however not all of that number is due to the inability to afford coverage. According to a 2009 story written by Christopher Weaver of Kaiser Health News, 43% of that number should be classified as “voluntarily” uninsured. This subset of uninsured Americans consist of nearly half being young and healthy; therefo...
When assessing where the industry will go over the next ten years, there is one area that stands out. Government involvement in healthcare has become a major player in how this industry is changing. New regulations are being introduced at a rapid rate and have pushed hospitals into constant change management (Arab Kash, Spaulding, Johnson, & Gamm, 2014).
There are many benefits of exercise on the human body, not only physical, but mental. Research has proved that exercise can benefit your mental health and your ability to learn. Exercise has many positive effects on patients suffering from a mental health disorder, such as depression or anxiety. Exercise releases chemicals in the brain called serotonin, which is a mood booster. The chemical can combat depression and help alleviate some of the symptoms that come with it. Exercise is shown to alleviate 25 different medical conditions, whether through secondary or direct benefits, such as Alzheimer’s. People who exercise are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s than ones who don’t because exercise releases chemicals in the brain that support the healthy growth of neurons. Exercise can also serve as a mental “buffer” against problems such as stress, which prevents further problems like depression. This creates a mental resistance to outside forces, which aid in day to day life. Exercise can also help in education. Studies show that schools with academic programs that lack physical education perform worse than ones that have a more robust system. Majority of research indicates that replacing some academic periods with physical education results in higher academic achievement for students and improved concentration and focus. Exercise is shown to increase circulation and blood flow to the brain which increases cognitive function and the efficiency of the brain, having a profound impact on the human body and its ability to function efficiently. Exercise also engages the prefrontal cortex and stimulates it, which is responsible for complex thought and problem solving. This is proven to increase creativity, concentration and test scores. Stu...
In order to fully understand the uninsured and underinsured problem that hospital administrators face the cause must be examined. The health outcomes of uninsured individuals are generally worse than those who are insured. Uninsured persons are more likely to experience avoidable hospitalizations, diagnosed at later stages of disease, hospitalized on an emergency or urgent basis, and more seriously ill upon hospitalization (Simpson, 2002) Because the uninsured often lack an ongoing relationship with a health-care provider, they are less likely to receive preventive care and diagnostic tests (Kemper, 2002). Many corporations balance their budget through cost cuts and other moves, but have been slammed with an increasing load of uninsured patients, coupled with reduced payments from government and private insurance programs. In 2000, 564,476 uninsured patients came through Health and Hospitals Corporations health care centers, a 30 percent increase from 1996. In the same period, Congress reduced Medicare reimbursements to hospitals, while Medicaid reimbursements to primary care clinics remained basicall...
The documentary film Bully (2011) – directed by Lee Hirsh – takes the viewer into the lives of five families that live in various, predominantly remote, towns across the United States. All families presented have been affected by bullying, either because their child was at the time being bullied by peers at school or the child committed suicide due to continuous bullying. The film also profiles an assistant principle, Kim Lockwood, whose indiscreetness makes the viewer...
Feldstein, J.P. (2011). Health Policy Issues: An economic perspective (5th ed.). Chicago, IL: HAP &AUPHA.
Walking on the street, jumping the fence, running the race, swimming in the pool or playing a football, if you keep on doing this, you are doing a wonderful job. Being a physically active not only improves your physical health, it also helps you built mentally strong. Physical activity encourages the brain to work at optimum capacity to increase productivity and helps to release the endorphins (the chemical produced by the brain) to make brain and body relaxed. The first step in life for prevention and management of disease and disorder is exercise. Exercise and Physical activity gain the attention of researchers regarding treatment of different psychopathological Disorder. Many research shows that involving in physical activity and exercise
There are many benefits to exercise. Physical activity can help increase self-esteem and reduce stress an...
Exercise can act as a very efficient way to help prevent age-related diseases. Bradley says that many recent studies focusing on the correlation between physical activity and mental health, clinical evidence have shown that exercise can have a positive effect on the outcome of treating mental illness, such as Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and Parkinson’s disease (Bradley). Physical Therapy improves the patient's’ quality of life and lessens the pain of the disease itself. “Some authors state that the influence of exercise on brain functioning might be related to the human evolutionary process, since physical activity is associated with survival. It has been suggested that individuals who exercise might show a biological advantage over sedentary individuals”(Bradley). So considering that exercise is very much related to improving the mental health of the elderly, we should consider adding physical therapy into the everyday life schedule of residents in nursing homes, where they will have the one-on-one contact and encouragement they
Ever since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, the healthcare industry has experienced an increase in hospital mergers throughout the country. Even though Affordable Care Act has made it easier for many Americans to have access to preventing medicine and despite many efforts, the system remains in a complete state of disarray. Patient care has not improved in the industry. Nevertheless, hospital administrators argue that mergers are going to benefit their patients by reducing cost, provide better services and help them to achieve their desired outcome with the minimum use of resources and efforts. On the other hand, experts believe that hospital mergers will influence the healthcare market by causing medical costs to inflate.
All over the world, it is believed that physical exercises help people achieve wellness. Physical exercise not only encourages physical wellness but also have a significant impact on mental stability and health. Although such positive believes stand, many benefits of physical activity has lost value overtime, as people nowadays have the tendency to rely on modern technologies and machineries, which are believe to make life easier. This often leads to shortage of physical activity and over sometime both physical and mental health will deteriorate. This argumentative essay, will explain how engaging in physical exercises improve one’s mental health.
Adding exercises into one’s daily routines can change their whole lifestyle. Many people look at exercise as being something just for people who want to lose weight or to become muscle bound, but there are a great deal of benefits that can be received from exercising regularly. Of course gaining muscle and losing fat are the two most popular reasons that usually attract people to the gym, but they make up a small part of the potential benefits that can be achieved with exercise. There are several ways in which I have benefited in my life from exercising regularly, besides just making me bigger and stronger. It has made me become more organized, helped me make better decisions, and motivated me to take on new challenges in life.