Written by Arathi Vinod | Edited by Sameer Rajesh and Nicole Xu

Exercise is considered the panacea for most of the biggest modern-day health conditions. By reducing body fat and weight, exercise plays a key role in preventing obesity, and in doing so, it also wards off serious heart conditions. The decrease in body fat allows the heart to put in less work to pump blood throughout the body, resulting in lower blood pressure and lower risk for cardiovascular disease. Exercise also encourages a wider range of motion, helping remedy muscle pain and joint pain. Above all, exercise has been observed to improve self-image and create a more positive outlook in individuals. In addition to these widely known advantages, exercise also has several understated benefits, providing all the more reason to adopt exercise as a daily practice.

Exercise and Learning

When considering the effects of exercise on muscles, the brain is likely not the first muscle that comes to mind. Nevertheless, exercise plays a significant role in molding neural circuits of the brain. Lifting weights or sprinting those final few yards access the same areas of the brain that learning does. For instance, both learning and exercise build upon concentration, long-term endurance, consequence evaluation, and motivation centers in the brain (Barile). Because of neural plasticity, the ever-changing nature of the brain, areas that are accessed more often tend to develop more. Therefore, by building on neural networks involved with focus, endurance, and motivation, exercise indirectly makes these pathways more accessible for learning as well.

Exercise also has more direct effects on learning. For example, through exercise, the body releases growth factors. These chemicals are responsible for producing new blood vessels to carry nutrients to the brain, as well as for sustaining the growth of brain cells (Godman). Brain studies align with these findings; the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal cortex, brain areas involved with memory, are more developed in individuals who exercise than in those who do not (Godman). Thus, not only does exercise improve the body, but it also has profound effects on the mind.

Exercise and Smoking

The connection between exercise and smoking is also often overlooked. Many of the symptoms associated with smoking withdrawal can be relieved by exercising. For instance, smokers often experience depression and lack of sleep when withdrawing from nicotine. Through the release of hormones such as dopamine and serotonin, exercise can counteract these withdrawal symptoms (Sandoiu). 

Furthermore, research has shown that exercise increases the likelihood of quitting smoking. A study conducted by Dr. Alexis Bailey of St George’s University of London demonstrated that mice dependent on nicotine showed less dependency following exercise. Researchers divided up mice into three groups of varying exercise intensities (indicated by different amounts of time spent running on a wheel) and fed all mice in the study nicotine for two weeks. Upon observing withdrawal symptoms following the two weeks of study, the researchers found that mice who spent 2 hours or 24 hours per day running on the wheel showed less of the expected adverse effects than those that did not run on the wheel at all (Sandoiu). In fact, the brains of mice that exercised showed increased activity in alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (special nicotine receptors) in the hippocampus, explaining why these mice did not experience such severe withdrawal symptoms. 

Exercise and Cancer

Though cancers come in a variety of different forms, exercise has been shown to reduce the risk for many of these distinct cancers through indirect means. For instance, high body weight is often an indicator of high cancer risk. Visceral fat in low-oxygen conditions can result in inflammation, the body’s response to disease (Underferth). Inflammation increases cell reproduction, thereby increasing the chance of cell division going awry and becoming cancerous. Therefore, by decreasing body fat, exercise reduces the risk of cancers correlated with obesity, including breast cancer, uterine cancer, and pancreatic cancer (Underferth). 

Hormone regulation is also integral in lowering the risk of cancer. Obesity and inflammation leads the body to make incorrect judgments about hormone needs, often secreting more than is needed. This then leads to further hormone imbalance; higher insulin levels trigger higher estrogen levels, and the amount of estrogen is further increased by secretion from fat cells. This rise in estrogen has been linked to conditions such as ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer (Underferth). Thus, physical activity plays a large part in preventing these cancers by not only decreasing the amount of fat cells, but also by regulating hormone levels and maintaining homeostatic conditions within the body.

Ultimately, though it has been widely accepted that exercise has a plethora of health benefits, research is still being conducted on the wide range of indirect effects it could have on more subtle health concerns. By altering the brain, regulating hormones, and decreasing body weight, exercise extends beyond simply physical benefits and shows potential for curing numerous other unforeseen health conditions.

Bibliography

Barile, Nancy. “Exercise and the Brain: How Fitness Impacts Learning.” Western Governors University, 16 Jan. 2018, www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/exercise-and-brain-how-fitness-impacts-learning1801.html. 

“Benefits of Exercise.” Medline Plus, 9 Oct. 2020, medlineplus.gov/benefitsofexercise.html. 

Godman, Heidi. “Regular Exercise Changes the Brain to Improve Memory, Thinking Skills.” Harvard Health Publishing: Harvard Medical School, 26 June 2020, www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110. 

Sandoiu, Ana. “How Exercise Can Help You to Quit Smoking.” Medical News Today, 1 Jan. 2018, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320484. 

Underferth, Danielle. “How Does Obesity Cause Cancer?” MD Anderson Cancer Center, 8 May 2020, www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/how-does-obesity-cause-cancer.h27Z1591413.html.