You knew exercise is good for you, but did you know it benefits cognition?
Several studies summarized in a recent NYT Well posting suggest that exercise improves both memory/recall (even among young males in college) and performance of skilled tasks (such as those performed by airline pilots). The studies also point to a particular protein, BDNF for short---one that's already known to aid in nerve cell health, as an important factor in memory and skilled-task performance improvements with exercise. This news is important for us all. And it could become especially important to those who have a gene variant (common among people of European and Asian "backgrounds") that results in decreased amounts of BDNF with increasing age.
