Exercise Prompts Growth of Brain Cells
Submitted by art on Fri, 2007-03-23 05:51.
Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a brain region called the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus that is known to be affected in the age-related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans.
The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging scans to help document the process in mice -- and then used MRIs to look at the brains of people before and after exercise.
They found the same patterns, which suggests that people also grow new brain cells when they exercise. One more reason you should be exercising regularly if you have MS.
exercise and ms -- building myelin?
A March 4, 2007 New York Times article by Daniel Coyle, "How to Grow a Super Athlete" reports that myelin is built when an activity is practiced over and over. While the article's premise is that repeated practice builds myelin which in turn creates super-athletes; it also may explain why those of us with ms have discovered anecdotally "use it or lose it". Exercise may be beneficial to ms patients because it builds up myelin. This may explain why using a balance ball workout restored me to a neurological exam which was within normal range for the first time since I began seeing my neurologist, and six months after an attack on the vestibular center of my brain. If this potential was fully researched, perhaps we ms patients could have more in common with prodigies.