Name: Spark
Rating: 4.4 (274 reviews)
Author: John J. Ratey & Eric Hagerman

What’s in it for me? Move your body and keep your mind sharp.

Humans didn’t evolve from a species of couch potatoes. Our ancestors were "movers," always on the go. To survive, early humans had to keep changing location, hopping from waterhole to waterhole, fleeing hungry lions or hunting other animals for food.

Today, however, the modern human spends plenty of time at a desk, moving nothing but his fingers. And while this may seem like progress, this lack of activity is wreaking havoc with the human brain.

Why is movement so important to the brain? As you’ll learn, the human brain thinks we’re living in a world in which we’re still “movers.” Consequently, the brain needs the body to move so it can continue to function and remain healthy.

In these blinks, you’ll also discover

why you don’t need Chardonnay if you have a skipping rope;
what anti-allergy medicine taught physicians about depression; and
what a broken hip can do to your brain.

Exercising is not only good for your body but also is good for your brain.

You know that you can tone your muscles by lifting weights. But did you know that your brain is also a malleable organ that gets stronger with use?

Think of your brain as just another big muscle – which means that if you keep your brain active, it will get stronger.

Every time you learn something new, the cells in your brain forge stronger connections to process the new information. But what’s even more fantastic is that physical exercise also helps facilitate this connection process, prepping your brain to learn even more.

But wait a second – how does physical exercise help the brain learn?

Exercise works to boost the brain’s infrastructure, or its ability to create the connections you need to learn. In part, this happens because exercise leads to an increase in the levels of important neurotransmitters that foster connections in the brain, like dopamine and serotonin.

But exercise also physically changes your brain cells, too.

When you work your muscles, these organs produce a specific type of protein known as growth factors. These proteins travel to the brain, where they make brain cells more capable of connecting. Growth factors also supply the building blocks for new brain cells and connections.

And the icing on the cake is that dopamine and serotonin, neurotransmitters that are released as you exercise, also sharpen your focus while improving your mood and motivation.

Thus the more you exercise, the better your brain’s ability to learn!

At Naperville Central High School, many students were struggling with English literacy and were required to attend extra lessons to improve reading comprehension. The school decided to explore the effects of exercise on learning and required that one group perform vigorous exercises right before class.

This exercise program, called Zero Hour PE, improved the group’s reading comprehension by 17 percent – while classmates who didn’t exercise improved only by 10.7 percent.

So clearly, exercise can help boost your brain’s capabilities, but that’s just one of the many benefits of exercise. Next you’ll learn about how exercise alleviates stress.

Don’t reach for a bottle of wine to cope with a stressful situation, but do some jumping jacks instead!

Imagine you’ve hired a contractor to perform home renovations. Before you know it, your home has become a living hell, torn apart and messy, with no end to the project in sight.

This is what happened to Susan, an energetic mother of four. Her story is a great example of how stress can potentially lead to stress-related health issues.

Depression isn’t just in your mind, it’s in your body, too. Exercise can help alleviate a dark mood.

Have you ever found yourself feeling down, perhaps for months on end? You might have been depressed. If you spoke to a therapist, for example, he may have asked you about childhood experiences that could be the cause of your depressive episodes.

Depression was once considered a psychological issue, unrelated to the physical body. But all that changed when physicians discovered how a person’s body could also affect mood.

When attention deficit disorder makes it hard to focus, physical exercise can lend a hand.

Do you ever struggle to stay focused while reviewing an abstract concept in philosophy or math? If you do, a specific part of your brain is to blame. Your ability to focus depends on your brain’s reward center.

This region of the brain, also known as the nucleus accumbens, is composed of lots of dopamine neurons, or brain cells that emit dopamine – the reward hormone – to the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for thinking, self-control and focus.

Kernaussagen in Spark

Worum geht es in Spark?

Spark (2008) reveals the ways in which exercise improves your health and even your ability to learn, think clearly and cope with stress. These blinks offer real-life examples plus scientific research to explain the innumerable benefits of physical activity and the fundamental connections between body and mind.

Über den Autor

John J. Ratey, MD, is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and head of a clinical practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has published some 60 papers on psychiatry and psychopharmacology.

Eric Hagerman is the director of video and multimedia content at This Old House Ventures. He was formerly the senior editor at Popular Science and Outside, among other magazines. His writing has appeared in many American publications, including Wired magazine.