TRI DUC ENGLISH - Aerobic Exercise and Brain Health TRI DUC ENGLISH Reading Practice: Aerobic Exercise and Brain Health The disease-fighting, weight-controlling benefits of physical exercise, especially aerobic exercise, have long been known. Now, researchers have discovered another advantage: Physical exercise has a powerful effect on brain health, and the benefits go beyond the release of endorphins, the chemical in the brain that improves mood. Exercise affects the brain’s plasticity—that is, its ability to reorganize itself—and can reduce the age-associated loss of brain tissue that decreases cognition in the elderly and in those who have disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Recent studies have found that exercise activates a number of factors in the brain, including a protein known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), that stimulate the growth and development of brain cells. BDNF regulates the production of synapses, the connections between neurons that are essential for transmitting signals from one nerve cell to the next, and may also be involved in producing new nerve cells. Using rodent models, researchers found increased concentrations of BDNF in the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in learning and memory and associated with dementia, after only one week of regular exercise. A study in older humans found a correlation between aerobic fitness, the size of the hippocampus, and performance on spatial memory tests. Other human studies noted that aerobic exercise increased the volume of gray matter in some parts of the brain. Regular exercise can help stave off some effects of normal aging and delay or diminish the gravity of conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and multiple sclerosis. Even over a relatively short time, exercise can repair some of the loss in brain capacity associated with aging. The greatest effects have been found in...