Stress Got You Worked Up? Work Out!
The effects of chronic stress on the memory center of the brain can be reduced by running. Researchers at Brigham Young University investigated the impact of stress on the connections between neurons in groups of mice who were either sedentary or who ran 5 km per day on a running wheel. The mice who ran every day did not have weakened synapses despite being subjected to stress. What does this mean for us? If exercise keeps the neuronal connections in the hippocampus in-tact, even when we are exposed to stress, our memory won’t suffer as much.
