Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

I read this book for an awesome grad school course with the University of Texas School of Public Health, Austin Regional Campus: PH 2998 - Seminar in Child and Adolescent Health taught by Dr. Steve Kelder. Part of our assignment was a book report and then an Amazon posting: Dr. John Ratey is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School as well as a practicing psychiatrist. He has been well known and respected in his field since the late 1990s and has published many books on various psychiatric topics. This book is a compilation of personal experience, scientific knowledge and studies, as well as case studies that involve exercise and how the brain responds. Dr. Ratey wants to share the information he has gathered and the benefits he has both witnessed and experienced in regards to exercise and brain function. He wants everyone to be able to tap into their best self, both physically and mentally. This book is very accessible for both the scientifically trained and the lay reader. Dr. Ratey explains some basics of neurobiology and brain chemistry in simple enough terms and frequently comes back to each explanation in each chapter so readers do not have to worry about memorizing the exact details of each study and concept - and by the end, many will stick to the reader’s strengthened neural circuitry due to such repetition and re-emphasis. Dr. Ratey focuses on eight very important topics in psychiatry and how they can be improved with exercise - learning, stress, anxiety, depression, attention, addiction, hormones, and aging. Each chapter gives a case study or two, some anecdotal evidence from his experiences and practice, as well as robust scientific findings and experimental outcomes supporting. It was extremely straightforward and easy to read for me. Here is a basic summary of each topic, each its own chapter: Learning is fueled by the building of new synapses and new cells in the brain. This is greatly driven by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which Dr. Ratey considers “miracle-gro” for the brain. He discusses how exercise stimulates and supports the production of BDNF and thus helps the creation and growth of new brain cells. Exercise also has proven impacts on alertness, attention, and motivation, all necessary for learning. Lastly, exercise helps with chemical factors that build and strengthen synapses (connections between nerve cells). Stress is something that is ubiquitous in modern culture. It erodes our physical and mental health and creates elevated risk for many diseases. Frequent exercise is something we don’t feel we have time for, something that we assume will just stress us out more, however, Dr. Ratey counters that some stress is good - it stimulates our bodies to renew and strengthen itself, exercise is a very good stress. It puts us in control of our bodies and our minds, and by extension our lives. The stress of exercise inoculates us against future stressful situations and trains our bodies to respond in less harmful ways. Frequent exercise primes us to fight stress and fight it appropriately. Anxiety is often a product of the hypersensitive nervous system and disrupted brain chemistry. In many situations it must be controlled with medications and therapy to reduce panic attacks. Many anxiety medications have concerning side effects. Dr. Ratey explains that exercise can work as well or better than medication, or alongside medication, to help people control their anxiety, panic, and fear. Exercise is able to create a distraction from anxiety, reduce muscle tension, properly build up the brain’s chemical resources, create a different outcome than panic attack, and reroute circuits in the brain. This to builds resilience to and hopefully growing freedom from anxiety and fear. Depression is another major issue tackled by Dr. Ratey. Just as with anxiety disorders, medications to treat depression have intense and unwanted side effects and individuals have great variance in whether a medication even works for them. While depression is something that often makes people unwilling to exercise, if they can make the first step to try it and a concerted effort to keep going they can have great results. Exercise balances many neurotransmitters that are out of whack in the depressed brain and can even repair structural damage that is apparent in many patients. This is a disease that can often be impacted one step at a time, literally. Dr. Ratey, has addressed attention disorders in several of his previous books. He has great insight and knowledge on the subject and now has increasing evidence that daily exercise is an effective treatment for many people with a spectrum of attention disorders. Personally, I have often thought that I am borderline ADHD, so this chapter was extremely insightful an impactful to me. It made me thankful that I had always been active and athletic as a child so I was not greatly impacted in school. Now in grad school, however, I should really step up my exercise routine again, rather than letting it slip as much as I have. Just as stated the learning chapter, exercise helps with alertness, motivation, and attention. It balances out neurotransmitters and helps the brain self-regulate for a time after moderate to vigorous activity. Another major topic was addiction. The impactful parts of this chapter were how some addicts were able to recover and retrain their brains with running programs incorporated in their treatment programs. There is a team of former addicts who now runs marathons together. They have found a way out of their addictions, learned to control their brain chemistry, and found a way to reconnect with others, rather than be marginalized. Dr. Ratey mentions in this chapter as well as others, how exercise can be even more beneficial as a social activity. In this case the social aspect helps former addicts reconnect as well as discuss their challenges and find support. Hormones, specifically the female hormonal cycle and associated disorders, are something that is also greatly impacted by exercise. Hormones are regulated in the brain as well as effect the brain, in particular the mood center, so exercise can be a form of treatment for many “female issues” such as PMS, pregnancy, postpartum depression, and menopause. This is great news for many women who suffer, some often and some at one time or another, from these common issues. While exercise may not always be a “cure”, Dr. Ratey emphasizes that it is something that can be started slowly and has very little risk or side effects as compared to other common treatments for hormone challenges, disruptions, and disorders. Lastly, Dr. Ratey discusses aging - both the general effects of aging on the brain as well as brain disease and disorder associated with aging (eg. dementia and Alzheimer’s). Regular exercise not only helps aging populations stay healthy and “feel younger” but also helps their brains stay markedly younger. There are physical and chemical effects in the brain itself that can greatly impact how gracefully someone’s brain ages. People who stay sharp, wise, and alert as they age are often regular exercisers, sometimes by recommendation of their doctors, but most often by habit and personal knowledge. Studies now support the creation of these habits. We can prevent the degeneration of our minds by exercising now and creating a habit of it to cary us through old age. This book has great implications for a current topic of study for me: child and adolescent heath. It reinforces that we must have quality physical education programs that encourage children and teens to have healthy habits and find a fitness routine that works for them. I am encouraged by Dr. Ratey’s introduction with “New PE” that is based on lifetime fitness and creating a new core subject. This book and suggestions in it can especially help children and teens dealing with issues of depression, anxiety, stress, and attention. And now we’ve all got to get out there and MOVE!

I am writing this review in order to provide an in-depth criticism on the book's content as well as structure for people who are deciding whether or not to purchase this book. I enjoyed the read. As an avid marathoner, I am constantly looking for literature that tells me that all the torture I put my body through is worth it. Being a medical doctor, John Ratey has hands-on experience and knowledge with diagnosis and prescription of treatments. He has seen how exercise can solve health issues in lieu of medications. His perspective on the topic allows him to write effectively. He has obviously researched the effects of exercise on the brain to a great extent - and he does a great job of introducing the reader to the science and explaining why it matters. He covers the effects of exercise on the following: learning, stress, anxiety, depression, attention deficit, addiction, hormonal changes, and aging. Each of these topics are very relevant to the modern human. Personally, I enjoyed reading the learning and stress chapters the most. Ratey wrote the book to promote exercise, and he constantly reminds the reader of it. He eloquently ties all the information of a chapter together to support his message: exercise is good for you. The first chapter, "Welcome to the Revolution", describes recent innovation in Physical Education classes in grade schools in America. Ratey tells an interesting story about the schools of Naperville, Illinois and the instigator of the PE rebellion, Phil Lawler. Mr. Lawler's story is fascinating. His desire to rework the PE curriculum and his success in doing so is admirable, but even more exciting are the results from that passion. Naperville's District 203 had some of the highest average test scores in the world, including 6th in the world for math and 1st in the world for science. Ratey uses this chapter to show how this isn't a simple correlation between increased fitness and higher test scores. He provides many examples as well as statistics to show that physical education has a very important place in the lives of Americans. The second chapter, "Learning", sets out to demonstrate to the readers how exercise affects the way we learn. In this chapter, Ratey introduces neuroplasticity, neurotransmitters, and neurotrophic factors. He describes the terms without using confusing medical jargon. Notably, he teaches the reader about Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and how it influences learning. Exercise stimulates the production of BDNF. Ratey mixes the science with real-life examples so it is easy to understand. The third chapter, "Stress", goes over the mechanisms of stress within the body and how exercise acts as a counter to excess stress. He uses a patient of his, Susan, as a point of reference throughout the chapter, applying new topics to Susan's situation and the outcome of those changes. I found it very useful to be able to come back to Susan and see how she changed as Dr. Ratey "prescribed" exercise to deal with stress. Ratey goes over what stress is and how it affects the body. This is very useful because not many people understand how debilitating stress can be and how important it is to have an outlet for reducing it. As Ratey explains, stress equals higher levels of cortisol in the body. Cortisol in high levels will damage the body, including the brain, but it is absolutely essential in controlled doses. Ratey does a fantastic job of explaining the complex interaction between the brain, the body, and stress. The fourth chapter, "Anxiety", describes how exercise affects anxiety. Ratey provides the reader with a simple and in-depth explanation of how anxiety is produced within the body. Shortly after, the reader finds out how exercise affects that state of anxiety and reduces it. It is very easy to throw out physiological terms and leave the readers with abstract ideas of what is happening in the body, but Ratey explains it well enough so the reader is not lost. In order to maintain some degree of mystery in the book, I will briefly skim over the remaining chapters. Chapter 5 "Depression" is an extremely useful chapter, as many people in the United States suffer from depression. Exercise has many benefits - and helping cope with depression is one of them. Ratey describes why and how exercise helps with depression. Chapter 6 "Attention Deficit" goes over the current epidemic of ADHD within the U.S. Ratey explains that it isn't a simple motivation issue, but a serious physiological one. Ratey explains what is deficient in the brains of people with ADHD. He describes how brain function is affected and how neurotransmitters are as well. Of course, he ties it back to exercise. Through case studies and reports, he explains effectively how the effects produced through exercise aid those with ADHD. Chapter 7 "Addiction" covers how addiction works in our brains and how exercise works in helping overcome addictions. There are many accounts of people getting through smoking or other addictions. I found this chapter to be inspiring and educational. Chapter 8 "Hormonal Changes" is specifically written for women. It goes through how hormones affect women throughout their lives and how exercise helps balance their system. Ratey covers PMS and menopause, giving thorough descriptions of what is happening physiologically. He then describes the counteracting effects of exercise. In Chapter 9 "Aging", Ratey explains what happens physiologically through the aging process. Again, he shows how consistent exercise can restrict the effects of aging and how it can improve brain function even in old age. He also advocates mental exercise as well as physical to restrain the effects of aging. Finally, the last chapter "The Regimen" offers advice for starting an exercise habit. It's a useful chapter, as Ratey offers basic tips, such as finding a group to exercise with. Ratey does a fantastic job keeping the reader interested. The content is divided into ten chapters, as previously stated, and follows a predictable pattern. His writing style is simple and easy to understand. It's not eloquent prose, but it is clear and concise and allows Ratey to deliver his message. Through his experience as a doctor, Ratey has plenty of stories for every situation. I loved reading how people's lives changed as they simply became more active. The people in the stories were, for the most part, entirely relatable to the average person. The information about case studies and research was explained clearly and simply, so a lay person could easily grasp the meaning and importance of complex interactions and systems. I enjoyed reading this book.

Author John J. Ratey has something to say that he believes could brighten our lives. The “brightening” is reflected even in the title of his book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Ultimately, Ratey, the associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and previous author of Driven to Distraction, wants to share his belief that “exercise is the single most powerful tool you have to optimize your brain function.” The book is somewhat repetitive in the later chapters, which is why I have to give it only four stars instead of five, but the messages, evidence, and arguments Ratey provides are very convincing and interesting. I already exercise many hours per week as a collegiate athlete but after reading this book I will even more motivated to continue exercising after I finish my college career! Spark has two main messages. The first is that we, as humans, are in more control of our mental health than we currently believe. The second is that we can use exercise to help control our mental health. Ratey wants us to know that we can be proactive about changing our mental state instead of simply relying on drugs to alleviate symptoms. He wants not only people suffering from physical and mental diseases but also normal people to know that they can exercise to help improve many parts of their lives. The following information is presented in the book. First, Ratey tells the readers about Naperville Central High School in Illinois. He describes how the high school implemented a revolutionary physical education program and how the school’s very successful students are now benefitting. Next, the author describes how exercise (aerobic exercise in particular) has shown to increase the potential for learning in the brain. He explains that exercise helps us optimize our mental approach (it improves our awareness and motivation), promotes wiring of cells, and spurs development of new cells in the hippocampus. The rest, and core, of the book is about debilitating mental diseases and how exercise counteracts them. He describes exercise’s counteractive effects on chronic stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, attention deficit disorders, and aging. He even includes a section on how exercise positively influences woman suffering from PMS and postpartum depression. One fault of the book is that the later chapters are repetitive. The author includes a full chapter for each problem (anxiety, depression, etc.) that exercise helps alleviate. Obviously, the effects of exercise on the body do not change for each chapter. Only the context and applications of the effects change. As I got deeper and deeper into the book, I grew less attentive because the chapters were so predictable; I knew Ratey would declare another problem that exercise counteracts, reiterate how exercise affects our body, and explain the specifics of how exercise affects the problem. The book would have received five stars from me if Ratey had presented each of these new chapters in more exciting ways or if he had combined some of these chapters to reduce redundancy. Still, the book had many positives. The chapters are moderate in length and are easily organized into many subsections. The author mentions many research studies, including the names of the leaders of the studies, to support his statements. Anecdotal evidence from his patients (Ratey is a practicing psychiatrist) provides strong context and examples for his statements as well. Ratey does a good job of interweaving the technical details behind the changes in the brain with general conclusion statements. The technical detail included in the book also helps it succeed despite its fault. Ratey often describes the underlying changes in the brain that are brought by exercise, which includes regulation of neurotransmitters. It seems that a neurotransmitter is referenced at least once every couple of pages. He explains how exercise promotes brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and regulates dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin levels. The author explains how the mental diseases he addresses are often marked by irregularities in the neurotransmitters and how exercise helps fix the irregularities. Also, Ratey describes how dendrites grow and wither and how synapses strengthen and weaken, all in the context of how exercise affects learning. In conclusion, the book provides a fresh take on how humans can counter the growing physical and mental diseases the affect our society. It is well known that exercise helps us physically, and Ratey wants the public to know that it has significant effects on our mental health as well.

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain is a wonderful book written by Dr. John J. Ratey, a prominent professor at Harvard Medical School, and writer Eric Hagerman who has published many articles in magazines such as Popular Science. Ratey and Hagerman provide a book that finally explains why exercise is an important activity that can make humans feel good and increase their overall well being. I thought the book was very well put together and it kept me hooked from the start. The book begins with Ratey and Hagerman presenting a case study of a school system in Illinois that has implemented a unique type of Physical Education curriculum that focuses on improving the overall health of enrolled students. By performing team-building physical exercises such as rock climbing, relay running, and swimming, students condition their bodies and minds. The school also helps students feel less self-conscious about their physical abilities by having them compete against themselves. For instance, instead of having the students run and race against each other they challenge students to beat their previous running times. After implementing this system, administrators noticed an increase in standardized test scores throughout the school district. Compared to before the institution of the Physical Education program. The authors then move on to explain how exercising can enhance learning from a unique scientific perspective: exercise can make neuron’s dendrites branch out according to research being conducted. In addition, Ratey provides the reason why and how exercise can mitigate stress and improve the mood of patients with depression by increasing endorphins. Ratey and Hagerman then complete their study with how exercise can help drug addicts regain self-control and learn self-discipline by abiding to a strict exercise regiment. The authors conclude the book with how exercise can help aging people maintain neural plasticity and amplify their memory and learning through their old age. I thought that the book was well written and it was easy to understand. It had me hooked from the start. I thought that beginning the book with the Illinois School System case study was an excellent idea and provided the framework and evidence for the rest of the cases to build on. The case study also helped put into perspective how important exercise can be not only to adults but also to children. I also liked how the book used very simple terms and explained in depth what a scientific term meant if it were used so the reader could understand. By explaining scientific concepts in depth it let people with even no scientific background enjoy the book and understand the overall message. For instance when describing the function of neurotransmitters, the authors use the analogy of neurotransmitters being like radio waves from one neuron to another. When the authors described the function of an inhibitory neurotransmitter such as GABA, they suggested it was like signaling a stop signal from neuron to neuron or to an effector cell/organ. From a neuroscience perspective, I enjoyed the exciting new research that is being conducted and how the authors presented the new concepts. For example, the authors stated that the presence of brain-derived neutropic factors (BDNF) acts like neuron fertilizer, and causes dendrites to grow and branch from neurons. They also talked about how BDNF can encourage long-term potentiation by making more ion channels open, thus causing a stronger voltage change and therefore signal. Reading the book really “sparked” my interest in the topic and I would enjoy learning more and maybe conducting laboratory researching in the future about the subject as it is a newly discovered concept. All in all, I believe that Spark was an expertly written book that helped me to gain better understanding of the connection of exercise and enhanced brain health. It also helped to trigger my interest in new and developing neuroscience concepts and fields which I hope to learn more about in the near future. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in neuroscience or even exercise. Anyone person with an interest in neuroscience will be captivated from the start.

When you go out for your daily run, you may think that you’re only helping to build strength and endurance primarily for your lungs, core, legs, and heart. Well in John J. Ratey’s novel Spark, an entirely new and exciting perspective on what exercise can do for you is introduced - it’s not only for the body, but also for the mind. John J. Ratey has an MD in psychiatry, works as a clinical professor at Harvard Medical School, and has written many other books similar to this subject in the field of psychology and neuroscience. He wrote this book to bring attention to the latest and exciting new research on exercise and the brain. Spark was written purely to motivate its reader to exercise or, in Ratey’s words, “stay moving.” Spark deserves 5 stars as it deeply illustrates in an easy to understand format how aerobic exercise is an exceptional way to keep your brain sharp and fully armed for your daily. After reading this book, my morning runs are now done for a completely different reason- to keep my brain in tune with my daily life. As our bodies begin to move more than normal during aerobic exercise, we are also getting our heart rate up. As our heart rate builds, our body produces many neurogenic growth factors – most notably Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor, or BDNF. As stated so simply by Ratey in the text, BDNF is the “miracle-grow” for our brain cells. Dr. Ratey notes that when BDNF is sprinkled on neurons in the petri dish, those brain cells automatically start to branch out – curiously analogous to the effects of miracle grow on plants. This branching is the most important mechanism in learning and memory. As exercise lengthens, BDNF and other important factors build up in our body and go directly to our brain in stockpiles. As Ratey emphasizes repetitively, the subsequent build up of these factors serves to increase the strength of learning. They act as the tools and materials to induce more branches so that more connections are made a lot more readily. Now, absorbing and learning new information is a lot stronger and effective. From here Ratey makes a connection with our Stone Age Paleolithic ancestors who were notably the most active people in human history. In fight or flight activities that required much physical exertion, this process described above is what helped us to overcome recurring problems and dangers by learning from them and inventing better methods to avoid or engage in them more efficiently. At this point, Ratey has given such deep background as to why we possess such mechanisms in our brain during physical. This in itself really sets the stage of the book hereafter. Ratey also introduces the idea of how important exercise is in balancing neurotransmitter release in our brain. The regulation of neurotransmitter release in our brain, including GABA, glutamate, serotonin, and dopamine, directly affects our mood and attention. These important neurotransmitters include GABA, glutamate, serotonin, and dopamine. Bringing the reader’s attention to numerous related research articles published within the last 20 years, Dr. Ratey demonstrates how well exercise regulates these neurotransmitter levels. The most spectacular research experiments to me were those in which three different groups of people were given different mood improving treatments. One group would be on mood or attention regulating drugs, the second group would be on consistent aerobic exercising regiments, and the third would be the control group. What was so striking was that the second group that regularly exercised, succumbed to the same effects of those who took the medications. Even more interesting, those who exercised also showed stronger and more effective improvements in the long term compared to those on just medication. This book is valuable for anyone who is looking to improve a mood disorder, mental sharpness, attention deficits, or who is just searching for more value in their daily exercise. It is a very motivating and easy read for those who aren’t familiar with neuroscience as it sufficiently describes the mechanisms that factor into the improvement of such prominent disorders we are so aware of in today’s fast moving world. Dr. Ratey backs up his claims with a multitude of published research studies which all come to the same conclusion: exercise builds, sharpens, and improves brain functioning. In the beginning of the book Dr. Ratey tells a story about a school in Illinois which changed its gym program so that instead of being judged on skill, the students were graded on physical exertion. This school then suddenly began to be ranked amongst the world with the highest science scores, and 8th highest math scores! I feel this book is just the start of a new idea for the world to consume: exercise improves your body, but most importantly your mind. I recommend the John J. Ratey’s Spark as it informs the reader about exercise and the brain in easy to approach language. This book was made for all audiences, not just the scientific, so try not to be overwhelmed by its premise. It will definitely motivate you to be more active since you will have a deeper understanding of the mind-strengthening potentials involved with being active.

John Ratey is a Harvard psychiatrist who subspecializes in the clinical use of exercise in mental diseases. In Spark he examines clinical and lab research in neuro-hormones, the chemical soup that determines how well our brain works. The front plate quote by Plato says it all," In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, man can attain perfection." (To this I'd like to add good nutrition, sorry Plato.) This book has many interesting stories together with the technical information. It is a quick, enjoyable read. We feel good when we exercise because it allows the brain to function at its best. Muscle building, cardiovascular conditioning, reducing stress and tension are secondary. Our society and its conveniences have made it difficult to get enough physical activity. We now have to work at it. The Naperville School District (19,000 students) west of Chicago has redesigned its P.E. system. All students participate in P.E. classes which develop cardiovascular fitness. In class students use heart rate monitors to gauge their degree of exertion. The only games played are ones with high levels of sweat like three-on-three basketball. Students are taught to encourage and support each other. The results have been dramatic: 10% of the number of overweight children found in other school districts; only 3% of students in Naperville are overweight. In an international study of 230,000 students those from Naperville were sixth in math (first in the U.S.A.) and first in science, ahead of Singapore, China, Korea and Japan. To confirm that the fitness program is key a study compared test results after P.E. class with results several hours later. Scores were much higher right after the fitness class, findings which confirmed prior animal studies. Vigorous exercise makes your brain work much better especially right after the exercise but also longer term. Naperville is an upper middle class community where many parents are scientists or engineers. Titusville, Pennsylvania is not. It is a failed factory town north of Pittsburgh where they copied the Naperville P.E. program beginning in 2000. Test scores went from below state average to 18 percent above. Since 2000 there has not been one fist fight in the junior high school. They were common before. A share of the 2000 Nobel Prize was given to a Eric Kandel who demonstrated that practice (piano, vocabulary etc.) caused neurons to grow new branches and made branches get larger and better connected to adjacent neurons. A neuro-chemical, BDNF, has the same effect plus it causes new neurons to form from stem cells and protects neurons from decay and death. Exercise elevates BDNF levels throughout the brain. Other beneficial body and neuro-hormones also increase during exercise. In summary, exercise increases alertness and motivation; it encourages new connections between neurons; it causes new neurons to form. Adding a complexity to exercise with things such as yoga, Pilates, tennis, or martial arts is even more effective than simple exercise. Exercise has been studied in patients with depression, stress, anxiety, attention deficit, addiction, menstrual and menopause problems. In general exercise has outperformed standard drug therapy in each of these conditions. That's not even taking into consideration the considerable side effects and cost of medications. It's been well documented that Alzheimer's disease incidence is much lower in regular exercisers (50% less). Animal studies have shown exercise effects in models of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's where findings in the brain were significantly reversed. Mental exercise is equally important. An epidemiologic study in Minnesota has followed an order of nuns who stay very active. When one died at age 85 of a heart attack she was found to have severe Alzheimer's disease at postmortem exam. But she had tested in the 90% percentile on cognitive tests shortly before her death. Severe pathologic Alzheimer's due to her genetic makeup had no effect on her life. Billions of dollars are being spent on genetic and pharmaceutical cures for this devastating disease, but we already know that a combination of diet, exercise and vigorous mental activity will prevent it. Ratey's exercise prescription: Aerobic - Four times a week; 30-60 minutes at 60-70% of maximum heart rate (220 - age = theoretical maximum heart rate) Strength - Twice a week with weights or resistance equipment. Balance and Flexibility - Twice a week for thirty minutes. Yoga, Pilates, Martial arts, dance are possibilities. In general more is better, harder is better, with another is better. N.B. Interval Training (e.g. 30 second bursts of maximal effort several times during the aerobic sessions causes increase in human growth hormone, a valuable healing and anti-aging substance that normally is at low levels later in life. The author lost his `spare tire' a few weeks after adding this to his exercise regime. Nothing else had worked.)

The idea that exercising your body exercises your brain is revolutionary, so I thought I would really enjoy this book. And in a general sense, this topic is very interesting. But I discovered that it is not interesting when parsed out for 300 pages. Once you understand that exercising helps your brain via numerous processes that scientists are just beginning to comprehend, there really isn't much more to say. The author provides lots of studies and individual case histories and provides details of the actual chemical processes without becoming a textbook. But none of it held my attention. There are individual chapters on how exercising helps the following: learning, stress, anxiety, depression, ADHD, addiction, hormonal changes, and aging. But the message for each chapter is the same- to help with (insert condition here), do aerobic exercise routinely. Thats it. This is one of only a handful of health books I have read that I gave up taking notes.

John Ratey has compiled great research within each chapter addressing specific conditions such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, stress, menopause, and aging. And, he conveys how exercise improves all those conditions. Ratey dwelves in physiological details how exercise boosts the levels of various neurotransmitters, hormones, and proteins which in turn positively affect our overall health and cognitive capabilities including memory, learning, mood regulation. Ratey conveys what specific type of exercises assist specific health situation and cognitive functions. There are tens of related interesting insights throughout the book. I am just mentioning a few examples below. 1) BMI and aerobic fitness are significant markers of academic performance. 2) Three neurotransmitters play a preponderant role in managing our moods, attention, perception, motivation, and movement. They are serotonin (mood), norepinephrine (focus), and dopamine (reward-system, movement). And, the pharmaceutical industry has focused on them: boosting serotonin to manage anxiety and depression; increasing dopamine to manage Parkinson). However, exercise boosts all three without any negative side effects. 3) Norepinephrine boosts the signal quality of synaptic transmission, while dopamine decreases the noise of neuron chatter. Together, they reduce ADHD and enhance learning. 4) Neurogenesis means we can grow neurons at any age. Stress, anxiety, and depression impair neurogenesis. But, exercise fights off those conditions and enhances neurogenesis. 5) A protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), builds and maintain neurons and neuron networks. BDNF facilitates the learning process and is important for long-term memories. In addition to synaptic plasticity, BDNF also plays a role in energy metabolism. BDNF also ramps up serotonin levels that help with mood, depression, anxiety. And, exercise boosts BDNF levels. 6) An optimal exercise program combines a skill acquisition exercise and a aerobic one. Tennis and biking fits that. Skill exercise strengthens and expands neural networks. The more complex the movements the more complex the synaptic connections. Aerobic exercise enhances mood by boosting the levels of all three mentioned neurotransmitters. 7) You should vary the intensity of exercise. High intensity exercise boosts the human growth hormone (HGH) which also boosts BDNF. In combination, these are like a fountain of youth. 8) Doing squats can be as effective in boosting HGH levels as running hard for 30 minutes. 9) Paleolithic humans walked and ran 5 to 10 miles a day just to eat. Our sedentary lifestyle is not catered to our DNA, and explains the obesity crisis. 10) Active people reduce their cancer risk by 50%. 11) Every 50 minutes of weekly exercise correlates with a 50% drop in risk of depression. 12) Briskly walking 5 hours a week reduces the risk of gestational diabetes by 75%. 13) Women over 65 who remain physically active are 50% less likely to develop dementia. 14) Diabetes increases your risk of developing dementia by 65%. High cholesterol increases it by 43%. Exercise can assist with both conditions. 15) Exercise prevents inflammation that triggers the plaque accumulation in the brain that causes Alzheimer’s disease. 16) Among individuals over 75, the ones with higher blood glucose levels (but who were still not diabetic) had a 77% higher likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease. 17) Being overweight doubles the chances of developing dementia. And, when combined with high blood pressure and high cholesterol, the risk increases sixfold. 18) Exercise reduces the risk of colon cancer by 50%.

The importance of exercise to mental health: two things very important to me. This book is amazing. Read it!

Since a few years I am interested in health and how lifystyle is affecting it. This book focusses on exercise as an intervention method for better health. The author does this job very well. He gives a comprehensive explanation how mechanism in the body and brains work, and how these mechanisms affect how you feel and your cognitive abilities.

Avevo tanti preconcetti sullo sport. Che era per gli stupidi, che era utile a poco più che per dimagrire, che in modo vago aiutava a tenere il corpo in salute. Ma questo libro mi ha aperto tutto un'altro universo! Lo sport serve per diventare più intelligenti, serve per essere più concentrati, aiuta a ritrovare motivazione e buonumore. Riequilibra tutti i neurotrasmettitori. Leggo la sera e la mattina mi alzo e faccio sport. Ora ho trovato mille ragioni per farlo e non mi sembra più una perdita di tempo. Roba mai fatta prima, mai pensato possibile.

Love this book! Want less stress in your life? Read this book. Want to do better in school or be more efficient at work? Read this book. Want to help your kids navigate the stresses brought on by peer pressure, social media and high expectations? Read this book and have them read this book. It has reframed my views of exercise from being mostly a tool for good physical health to a tool primarily for good mental health. The book covers several topics related to exercises impact on mental health and wellbeing as well as it's impact on learning, and specifically when and what kind of exercise. (There is lots to choose from if you use your imagination and get your heart rate up). It's a quick and easy read that immediately gets a paradigm changing point across.

Muito interessante saber da importância dos exercícios aeróbicos. Livro com bastante estatística no primeiro capítulo, um pouco cansativo para mim. Mas é um livro muito bom.