Thursday, June 28, 2007

Exercise, the natural antidepressant: helping grow new brain cells

From Science Daily:
Exercise has a similar effect to antidepressants on depression. This has been shown by previous research. Now Astrid Bjørnebekk at Karolinska Institutet has explained how this can happen: exercise stimulates the production of new brain cells.
Though this study was done in rats, it did show that both exercise and antidepressant medications increase the formation of new cells in an area of the brain that is important to memory and learning.

Too bad HMOs don't include gym memberships in their coverage plans. Maybe someone should start an exercise rewards program. I remember enjoying the summer reading programs from the public library as a child. You would get a stamp for each book you read, and after a certain number of stamps, you could redeem them for prizes.

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