Can Exercise Grow More Brain Cells?

Jack LaLanne will be 94 years old September 26. His life has been a tribute to the benefits of lifelong exercise. Science is slowly substantiating the essential truths behind LaLanne's long crusade.

Exercise is essential to building new muscle cells in a damaged heart, or in skeletal muscles. Exercise kicks stem cells into the circulation, where they can migrate to where they are needed.

Researchers at the University of Gothenberg have recently shown that exercise stimulates the growth of new brain cells from neural stem cells, aiding recovery from brain damage.

Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenburg show for the first time that exercise helps restore stem cell growth and improves behavior in young mice that suffered damage to the brain induced by a clinically relevant dose of radiation.

The researchers believe that these results are also applicable to children that have suffered damage due to radiotherapy of brain tumors.....The results from the study demonstrated that irradiated mice showed increased motor activity and altered movement patterns that were normalized if they were allowed to exercise. In addition, the mouse brains contained 50% more stem cells than their non-exercising counterparts. _SD

Children are much better able to produce stem cells to replace damaged body tissue than are adults. But the capacity to regenerate damaged tissue never goes away completely. It is quite possible that individuals who exercise regularly throughout life, are maintaining their bodies and brains in a much higher state of function, due to continued stem cell rejuvenation.

The long-term ramifications of natural stem cell stimulation--exercise, sleep, diet, herbs, meditation, etc etc--remain to be studied.