How Jogging Can Jog Your Memory - 23 July 2011

How Jogging Can Jog Your Memory


No, this posting isn’t about the fitness or weight loss benefits of jogging – that’s really old hat! What I’d like to reflect about are the mood and memory boosts associated with jogging/running, as there is interesting new scientific research in this field, and anything that can enhance one’s mood or memory should definitely enhance one’s work.

Psychological research has proved that running can be addictive because some related chemicals produced – mood enhancers – are just like those that drug addicts take when they want to get “high”. Take a look at this article on “Endocannabinoids and Exercise”, from the British Journal of Sports Medicine. It emphasizes the sedative, anti-anxiety effects of exercise such as running, along with the general sense of well-being produced. While it does mention the “impaired working memory ability” and “difficulty in time estimation” associated with the “runner’s high”, these effects appear to be temporary; one may compare these effects to the rise in pulse which is reversed after exercise (Olympic athletes, for example, are known to have very low resting pulse rates – around half of the normal person’s).

Here is a 2010 Guardian article discussing the link between running and the brain: “Start Running and Watch Your Brain Grow, Say Scientists”. It revolves around a study claiming that aerobic exercise triggers new cell growth, and that the region of the brain affected is linked to memory: “Neuroscientists at Cambridge University have shown that running stimulates the brain to grow fresh grey matter and it has a big impact on mental ability….The work reveals why jogging and other aerobic exercise can improve memory and learning, and potentially slow down the deterioration of mental ability that happens with old age.” The study compared two groups of mice: a sedentary group and a running group. The latter showed better memories and sharper perception when objects were switched: “Brain tissue taken from the rodents showed that the running mice had grown fresh grey matter during the experiment. Tissue samples from the dentate gyrus part of the brain [one of the few regions of the adult brain that can grow fresh brain cells] revealed on average 6,000 new brain cells in every cubic millimetre.”

The Cambridge study appears to corroborate findings from an earlier Columbia study involving 11 volunteers: “Aerobic exercise—an hour a day, four days a week for three months—led to changes on brain scans that seemed to indicate the birth of new neurons in the hippocampus” (Anne Underwood, “Jogging Your Memory”, Newsweek, Dec. 1, 2007).

So if you haven’t started jogging yet, what are you waiting for? On the other hand, if I see you at the track some day soon I might assume that you’ve read this and caught on. See you there!


Posted by May Mikati on 23 July 2011, 3:20 PM

Long Summer Holidays - 18 July 2011

Long Summer Holidays


Long summer holidays can bore one to death if unplanned. I don’t often opt for a long vacation in summer, but when I’m not teaching I’m usually busy with something else: working on a publication, preparing new material for the following year, etc. I might get to travel a little but cannot rest for long without the sense that time is being wasted. Do I consider myself a workaholic? The Merriam-Webster definition of a workaholic is simply “a compulsive worker”, so I assume I’m probably a borderline case though this self-assessment is rather subjective! Luckily, workaholism is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), so one may safely assume that it is not an illness though the “compulsion” part does have a ring of OCD to it (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)!

Besides, there’s a difference between merely working/ being busy and being productive. It’s good to find tangible ways of measuring one’s own productivity, for the sake of self-fulfillment. One’s self-esteem must not depend on what others think, however, but rather on one’s conviction that one has done one’s best. The quality of one’s work and efforts should matter the most. One must never be proud of high quantity poor quality work output no matter what pressures one is under.

In the end, it remains true that “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Vacation time is important for refreshing oneself and zesting up one’s spirit. One can be more physically active in the holidays than when one is glued to one’s desk or in front of a computer all the time. Without vacations we would all be duller, and probably fatter and much less healthy as well; and vacation time needn’t be all play: it can be partly productive. Just consider this blog, for example. It wouldn’t have started if it weren’t for the summer holiday that triggered it. Instead of silently ruminating about one’s work, one can blog about it, reflecting and sharing one’s experiences for the benefit of others.


Posted by May Mikati on 18 July 2011, 11:18 AM