Posted on 05/17/2022 10:04:52 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
Exercise increases levels of a chemical involved in brain cell growth, which bolsters the release of the "feel good" hormone dopamine, a new study shows. Dopamine is known to play a key role in movement, motivation, and learning.
Experts have long understood that regular running raises dopamine activity in the brain and may protect nerve cells from damage. In addition, past research has tied exercise-driven boosts in the dopamine-triggering chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and in dopamine levels to improvements in learning and memory.
Researchers showed that mice running on a wheel for 30 days had a 40% increase in dopamine release in the dorsal stratium, the part of the brain involved in movement, compared to levels in mice that did not exercise. The runners also showed a nearly 60% increase in BDNF levels compared to their non-running counterparts. Notably, the increase in dopamine release remained elevated even after a week of rest. Additionally, when BDNF levels were artificially reduced, running did not lead to additional dopamine release.
"Our findings suggest that BDNF plays a key role in the long-lasting changes that occur in the brain as a result of running," says Guendalina Bastioli, Ph.D. "Not only do these results help explain why exercise makes you move, think, and feel better, they also show that these benefits continue even if you do not work out every day," adds Bastioli.
The study authors note that patients with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders are often treated with drugs that mimic dopamine's effects on motor neurons. However, the mechanism behind dopamine's role in this protective benefit of exercise had not been thoroughly explored.
"Our results help us understand why exercise alleviates the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, as well as those of neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression," says Margaret Rice, Ph.D.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
“This is a study done with mice.”
Just what we need - more healthy mice.
Yeah, it’s a trade-off. I trained for 40 years, ran for nearly 30,000 miles, and the knees did finally tighten up a bit. But my Quack says the heart in the pic is 15 years younger than the guy using it. And I’m in better shape than the same Quack. He won’t let me use his huff and puff machine anymore since I blew the top off of it. And we don’t talk about blood pressure anymore either-—his walmart sphygmomanometer can’t squeeze hard enough to collapse an artery. And the brain works good enough to avoid the clotshots so it’s all good.
Oh, interesting! That is a useful thing to know that I probably should have already learned, being in a population group prone to osteoporosis!
Cocaine releases even more dopamine with less effort.
But as Hunter Biden can attest, you have to keep using or you crash.
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