Everyone knows that exercise is important, not only in preventing diseases (heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis to name a few), but also because it offers psychological benefits like improved self esteem and mood as well as helping you cope with stress, perhaps hold off depression or anxiety.
New work out of Sweden suggests being active might offer you yet another edge – Being smarter and thus more successful later on in life.
The relationship between physical activity and cognitive function has been studied in the past, but typically in either young children or older adults.
Any work that looked at young people tended to be smaller, until this extremely large study that appears in the online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences came along.
“Young adulthood is the time span in which important behavioral habits and cognitive functions are shaped,” explains study senior author H. Georg Kuhn, professor for regenerative neuroscience at the Center for Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, Institute of Neuroscience and the Physiology, University of Gothenburg in Sweden. “It is the period when academic performance has the biggest impact on the future life.”
It’s also a time when the central nervous system is still growing.
The study was quite large, including 1.2 million Swedish men born from 1950 to 1976. More than 250,000 of the men were siblings, and more than 3,000 were twins (of this 1,432 were identical twins).
The researchers took information from the time the men were conscripted into the military, compulsory in Sweden at age 18. The data was then matched with information on the men’s earlier academic performance, how many siblings they had and their socio-economic class.
The twin part of the study helped researchers to see that environmental factors accounted for more than 80% of the equation, genetics had less than a 15% influence.
The findings suggest a strong cardiovascular system in young adulthood can help boost brainpower, leading to better grades and thus more overall success later in life.
Continues below…
*Highly Recommended*
Professional Trainer (CPT) Reveals Truth About Quick Fat Loss…
Have you ever dreamt about hiring a personal trainer? Just think of the results you’d achieve! Well, now you can have access to your own PT at no cost.
Mike Geary, a Certified Nutrition Specialist and Certified Personal Trainer(CPT), has blown the lid off the ‘Professional’ health industry and released a no-cost “no-gimick”insiders report which reveals the explosive truth about fat loss…
And he’s giving his insider report away today – you can get your copy here at Lean Body Fitness Secret
*Disclosure: compensated affiliate*
Want To Be Smarter And More Successful Continued…
Better cardiovascular fitness, the efficiency of the heart, lungs and vascular system in delivering oxygen to the muscles and brain was associated with higher intelligence, though the same could not be said for muscle strength.
This latest work supports the idea that aerobic capacity, rather than muscle strength alone, is an important part of our overall health and fitness level.
There are any number of explanations for why better cardiovascular fitness might impact brain function. Maybe it has to do with the improved blood flow to the brain that comes from exercise.
Other benefits of regular activity such as diminished anxiety, better mood and less fatigue could make it possible for the brain to focus, and thus achieve more.
“This gets back to empowerment. You can’t determine that exercise or eating well isn’t going to help you because of your genetic background,” said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City who also serves as spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. “This is showing you that, regardless of genes, what you choose to do and how you choose to live can make a difference.”
Regular exercise is looking better and better all the time – And for all ages too.
Daily Health Bulletin
For A Limited Time: Click Here To Grab 5 Free Essential Health Reports Today!
