Exercise Does a Mitochondrion Good

We know that exercise is good for your mind. It relieves stress, makes you smarter, decreases depression  and so on, but can it do more? The good researchers at the University of South Carolina hypothesized that perhaps the brain was improving the brain function by creating new mitochondria. (Mitochondria, from what I can deduce, is the chemical energy production unit.) We already know that exercise helps create and improve mitochondria in the muscles, but we weren't sure if the same was true of the same benefits occurring in the brain until recently when the researchers found that mitochondria was created throughout the body, to include the brain.

The possible advantages to this finding is that neurodegenerative (e.g. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's) diseases could possibly be curbed by producing more mitochondria. Also more exercise might promote the ability to withstand more exercise, through the strengthening of the mitochondria in the brain. Plus it could "reduce mental fatigue and sharpen your thinking" after exercise ends. But you already knew that. Wink.




http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/how-exercise-can-strengthen-the-brain/