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Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition
Charles H. Hillman, Kirk I. Erickson and Arthur F. KramerAbstract | An emerging body of multidisciplinary literature has documented the beneficial influence of physical activity engendered through aerobic exercise on selective aspects of brain function. Human and non-human animal studies have shown that aerobic exercise can improve a number of aspects of cognition and performance. Lack of physical activity, particularly among children in the developed world, is one of the major causes of obesity. Exercise might not only help to improve their physical health, but might also improve their academic performance. This article examines the positive effects of aerobic physical activity on cognition and brain function, at the molecular, cellular, systems and behavioural levels. A growing number of studies support the idea that physical exercise is a lifestyle factor that might lead to increased physical and mental health throughout life.
Participation in physical activity has been associated with the reduction of a numberof physical (for example, cardiovascular disease, colon and breast cancer, and obesity) and mental (for example, depressionand anxiety) disorders across the adult lifespan1. Despite mounting evidence forthe importance of physical activity, 74% of adults in the United States do not meet the recommended guideline of at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week1,2. Recent evidence further indicates that children are growing increasingly sedentary and unfit, and that these lifestyle factors are related to an earlier onset of several chronic diseases (such as type II diabetes and obesity), which typically do not emerge before adulthood3. As a result, recent estimates have indicated that younger generations, for the first time in United States history, might live less healthy lives than their parents45. The economic cost of this sedentary lifestyle is enormous in both developed and developing countries, with estimates indicating that inactivity was associated with 2.4% of healthcare expenditures in 1995
(Ref. 6) and ~US$76 billion in medical costs
in the year 2000 (Ref. 7). Canadian estimates concur, as 2.5% (or $2.1 billion) of the total direct healthcare costs for the year 1999 were related to physical inactivity8.
In addition...