Exercise and the Brain

📍 📍 Hi, everybody. It’s Doctor Ellison,

and I just wanted to give you your health reminder of the week. We’re talking mostly about children this month,

but this message will affect and can help both of you,

your child, as well as yourself. Now, years ago,

many people believe that health benefits of exercise were limited to just the body.

However, research now demonstrates that regular physical activity and movement can benefit both the body and the brain. Recent studies, in fact,

have highlighted that movement can improve the supply of oxygen to the brain and promote the production of new cells. Who couldn’t use more of those, right? In fact, it appears movement also aids in creating new connections in the brain.

Many schools have reduced physical education classes and many more students now have moved towards e learning. For those reasons alone, it’s important to be mindful of our children’s physical activity and to encourage them to exercise more each day. And not just for the physical health as we were just talking about.

In fact, in many ways, exercising each day is likely to make your child a better student. Movement triggers the release of chemical substances in the brain that enhance brain function. Now here’s a quick snapshot of the benefits of movement. Number one,

better brain function. Movement may protect your brain against degenerative changes.

Number two,

better stress reduction. Exercise and movement have been shown to have an antidepressant effect that can help reduce overall stress. And number three,

better brain memory. Regular exercise can help directly and indirectly improve recall and reasoning skills. The research is clear. Daily movement and exercise are healthy for both your child’s body and their brain.

And our posture and movement assessments are designed to help you identify any abnormal patterns. So helping your child feel better and stay active so they can become the best student possible. So if your child struggles to get enough exercise due to sitting too much at a computer or sitting at their on their phone and texting all the time, make sure that you’re doing everything you can to get them outside

and get them moving and increasing their oxygen to the brain.

And also remember that movement of the spine, it gives their brain the number one nutrient. It’s through what we call proprioception. It’s the number one nutrient for the brain. And we all need it. So we’ve got to make sure our spines are moving as freely as possible. And that’s where we come in. And that’s why chiropractic is for kids as well as adults.

We’ll see you next week.