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Exercise Physiology

Exercise physiology is the study of the body’s responses to physical activity.


These responses include changes in metabolism and in physiology of different
areas of the body like the heart, lungs, and muscles, and structural changes in
cells. The word exercise comes from the Latin exercitus, “to drive forth,” while
physiology comes from the words physis (“nature”) and logia (“study”).

ARTICLE:
Exercise Enhances and Protects Brain
Function
Cotman, Carl W.; Engesser-Cesar, Christie
Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews: April 2002 - Volume 30 - Issue 2 - p 75-79
ARTICLE

EXERCISE INDUCES BRAIN-DERIVED


NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR (BDNF) GENE
EXPRESSION
We developed an animal model to examine the effects of exercise on the brain,
specifically to see if exercise regulated BDNF. We chose voluntary wheel running as it
closely mimics the choices humans have when exercising because animals dictate the
time, speed, and distance of running throughout the experiment. Some rats voluntarily
run up to an astounding 20 km in one night! At the beginning of the experiment, we
predicted that with physical activity the major sites of gene induction in the brain would
be in motor and sensory regions. However, the brain region showing the earliest and
most sustained neurotrophic upregulation in response to exercise was the
hippocampus. The hippocampus is a brain region important in learning and memory and
is a target for early deterioration in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease
(AD).
Initial experiments were designed to measure the effects of acute exercise bouts
on BDNF activity. In situ hybridization measures of BDNF messenger RNA (mRNA)
found a 20% increased abundance of BDNF mRNA from control levels in the
hippocampus after 2–7 nights of running (Fig. 1) (6,7). Increases in BDNF mRNA levels
occur when running activity is above a minimum threshold level of approximately 500
m·d−1. BDNF mRNA increases with greater distances run up to a ceiling at several
km·d−1. Experiments looking at 3 wk of exercise demonstrated that the effect of exercise
on BDNFmRNA levels was not merely a short-term, transient effect. Indeed others have
shown that increases in mRNA for BDNFand its receptor trkB are observed in the
hippocampus after 6 wk of voluntary wheel running (15). Recently, experiments showed
that the increase in abundance of BDNF mRNA is paralleled by increases
in BDNF protein levels (Fig. 1).

References
1. Berchtold, N. C., Kesslak, J. P. Pike, C. J. Adlard, P. A. Cotman. C. W. Estrogen and
exercise interact to regulate brain-derived neurotrophic factor mRNA and protein
expression in the hippocampus. Eur. J. Neurosci. 14: 1992–2002, 2001.

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2. Carro, E., Trejo, J. L. Busiguina, S. Torres-Aleman. I. Circulating insulin-like growth


factor I mediates the protective effects of physical exercise against brain insults of
different etiology and anatomy. J. Neurosci. 21: 5678–5684, 2001.

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5. Laurin, D., Verreault, R. Lindsay, J. MacPherson, K. Rockwood. K. Physical activity


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 6. Neeper, S. A., Gómez-Pinilla, F. Choi, J. Cotman. C. Exercise and brain
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Keywords:
running; BDNF; depression; estrogen; neuroplasticity; neuroprotection

©2002 The American College of Sports Medicine

My understandings:
The article tells that exercise not only improves one’s
coordination but they can also improve brain function and
learning. Exercise can also boost mood, improves sleep, and
reduces stress and anxiety.
Comments:
Exercise is really important to everyone. It reduces the risk of
developing several diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer and
cardiovascular disease. Also, it improves the quality of our
life, the way we think, we react, and the way we treat our self.

As a student, I agree with what the article says. There is no


one who can help our self get rid of different sickness but it’s
also our own. As the saying goes ‘’Prevention is better than
cure’’. It is better to stop something bad from
happening than it is to deal with it after it has happened.
When it comes to our health, prevention is much better than
cure. Several diseases and injuries are preventable, and can
be managed much better if identified earlier on.

It is better to try to keep a bad thing from happening than it is


to fix the bad thing once it has happened.

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