Basic Pursuits

Good health pays in many ways. Now come a couple of articles suggesting exercise can help you with your pocket book along with making you healthier.

Save money on brain games

Since 2005 the sales of brain exercise products has jumped from $2 million to an expected $80 million this year. These products claim to keep the brain sharp by challenging it with various activities like playing Sudoku. According the the New York Times, "Advertising for these products often emphasizes the claim that they are designed by scientists or based on scientific research. To be charitable, we might call them inspired by science — not to be confused with actually proven by science."
The Times goes on to say that "...the belief that any single brain exercise program late in life can act as a quick fix for general mental function is almost entirely faith-based."

Another form of training has been scientifically shown to improve cognitive function - exercise. Here's how it works:

• Slows the age-related shrinkage of the frontal cortex
• In rodents, exercise increases the number of capillaries in the brain
• Improves cardiovascular health, preventing heart attacks and strokes that can cause brain damage
• Causes the release of growth factors, proteins that increase the number of connections between neurons

Save money on antidepressants

In an article entitled Exercise: The Miracle Antidepressant Drug, research analyst Mary Sichi sites a study that compared a group that took the common antidepressant medication, sertraline, with a placebo group, a group that exercised at home and a supevised exercise group.

Sixteen weeks later, 47% of the group that took the antidepressant, 45% of the supervised exercise group, and 40% of those that exercised at home no longer met the criteria for major depression based on a standard measure of depression symptoms. Although the percent of improvement in the group that exercised on their own was less than that of those that exercised in a supervised group, and the percent improvement in the supervised exercise group was slightly less than that of the group that took the antidepressant, the differences between these three groups were not statistically significant. All groups improved a statistically significant amount over the placebo group...

Did anyone ever think that lack of exercise may itself be depressing? After all, humans have evolved for millions of years as creatures that exercised (chasing food, running from predators, walking everywhere). In a few generations much of that stopped and we have an epidemic of depression.

Exercise on the Brain

Exercise:The Miracle Antidepressant Drug?

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