Be smarter: Start running

Fysical fitness improves cognative performance! That is the pleasant message of the eight commandment in the book 'De tien geboden voor het brein' (The Ten Commandments for the brain) written by René Kahn. The book is only available in Dutch, sorry...

Not that the regular runner of this blog still need reasons to run but it always nice to read that your favorite hobby can have nice effects.

As a runner, you live longer and you will earn more money as well. Which is conveniant as you can create the financial reserve to keep on buying running gear after you retired.

But if we, as a runner are cognitively so good, you might expect that we runners are curious and want to know why we are smarter thanks to running. Here is the anwser according to the book: Research on mice showed that mice with increased level of activity have an increased growth of new cells in the brains. This in contrast to the use of alcohol, this slows down the cell growth and hence Commandment Seven: do not drink. That means no alcoholic beverages. Because smart runners know that, especially during running, fluid intake is advisable to maintain your physical performance levels.

Not only is running good for the cognitive skills. It also helps to counter the aging of the brain (that is to say: in mice). And again here is how it works: The aging of the brain is predominant in the hippocampus. This is not only the part of the brains in which we store new information (which explains why it is more difficult to learn new things at a later age ). It is precisely the place where the above mentioned new cells are created.


OK, nice. It owrks in mice but do we compare ourselves with mice? Fortunately, according to Mr. Kahn, there is also evidence that this works the same in humans. In America, a group of 120 subjects, 65 years of age was randomly divided into two groups. Group 1 had to exercise three times per week, a 40 minute walk. The other half was also active but with yoga, stretching exercises and the like, activities that have no positive effect on fitness. After a year the walking group had increased fitness as you might expect. But also the hippocampus was increased by 2%! In the control group the hippocampus shrunk 1.5% as you normally expect with people of that age.

So you see that the saying 'Anima Sana In Corpore Sano', which stands for 'a healthy mind in a healthy body' is very true. It is surely a smart move to name your sportsbrand, 'ASICS' which is the acronym for this saying.