Have you ever wondered just why you like to exercise?
What is it about moving your body that makes you so happy?
Maybe you haven’t asked that question, but I surely did, and it was a bit more scientific than I thought.
This idea that we could actually scientifically prove that exercise actually creates a sensation of joy and contentment, seems somewhat wild.
I was watching a min-documentary about this skater that goes by the name of Slomo, who just happens to reside in my old stomping grounds of San Diego, and more specifically Pacific Beach.
Slomo skates up and down the San Diego beach boardwalk going at as unusually slow rate of speed typically with one leg suspended in mid air. Thus why they call him “slomo” (Slow Motion).
In the San Diego beach community he has become somewhat of a local celebrity. He’s been doing this for 15 years and no one really knew anything about him.
Many thought he was some retired homeless dude.
As it turns out this unsuspecting guy who everyone thought was just some vagabond actually was a former medical doctor. His real name is Dr. John Kitchin, and practiced medicine for over 20 years as a neurologist and psychiatrist. He even owned a 30 acre ranch at one point with a petting zoo, and started a nonprofit foundation to bring children to visit the animals.
What most fascinated me about his documentary was a brilliant illustration of just why we actually enjoy exercise. As a neurologist, Slomo, went on to explain that there are actually parts of our brains that are activated when we are in motion or as he calls it “flying”.
I will make a feeble attempt to explain in my own words what Slomo explains as lateral acceleration. You see when, for example, in his case when he is roller blading on one foot, the motion stimulates neurological receptors in the brain that attempt to find a balance with the center/core of the earth. Within each of us our main central mode of finding balance is done through our ears.
As such, any change change in gravity, tells the body that it is moving relative to the center of the earth. And therefore when this feeling is constant it creates this feeling of being in the “zone” or expansion.
To hear it from his own mouth explained and illustrated probably far better than I can, check out this brief video. (Time: 2:17 Minutes)
Neurogenesis
Many of you might be familiar with the out dated and just plain wrong information growing up that stated that each of us is born with a set number of brain cells and there is nothing more we can do to change that once we enter adulthood. That essentially it is impossible to grow new neurons in the brain once we are adults.
Well, this is now being shown to be considered false by what is called Neurogenesis, and it is one of the greatest discoveries of our time.
Neurogenesis is basically the production of new neurons in the brain. A neuron is a cell in the nervous system that processes and transmits information.
What’s fantastic is that there appears to be no drug that can actually help you to regrow new brain cells other than two things:
1) Physical exercise (aerobic)
2) Omega 3 – DHA
The table below summarizes some of these basic relationships between omega-3s and diet types:
| Diet Type | ALA Food Sources | EPA and DHA Food Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Vegan | Many plants | Sea plants; possibly land plant foods when fermented with the help of certain fungi |
| Generally vegetarian but including fish | Many plants and most fish | Most fish; sea plants; possibly land plant foods when fermented with the help of certain fungi |
| Generally vegetarian but including eggs, cheese, milk and yogurt (without fish, sea plants, or meat) | Many plants; eggs, cheese, milk, and yogurt | Eggs, cheese, milk, and yogurt, especially when obtained from grass-fed animals but in varying amounts depending on additional factors; possibly land plant foods when fermented with the help of certain fungi |
| Plant-eating and meat-eating (but without fish or sea plants) | Many plants; many meats | Many meats, especially when obtained from grass-fed animals, but in varying amounts, depending on additional factors; possibly land plant foods when fermented with the help of certain fungi |
The adult hippocampal neurogenesis in humans was at the center of a study conducted over 10 years ago, where new neurons were discover in the part of the brain called the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a part of the brain that is involved in learning and memory.
In the case, of exercise, and more so repetitive exercises, for example with the left and right hand or foot, are ideal ways to actually create new neurons in the brain.
According to Stephen Jepson, Movement Expert,
Neurogenesis is a creation of new brain cells and new neurons and dendrites and new pathways in the brain. It is creating new, it is creating cognitive reserve in the brain. That is what I am all about. Neurogenesis is the development or the happening of new brain cells and new axons and dendrites, new pathways in the brain and you just cannot have too much of that.
As we age, as time passes, just like our skin cells die and the fingernails they grow out and die, all the cells in our body over time die and change but our body can grow new skin, we can grow new everything, every atom in our body is new every seven years or something like that. Every atom, imagine that, that it just gets traded with what is out there in the universe. So I encourage people to do these motor skill things because it was only learned by Dr. Randy Gage in 1998.
Up until that time they did not know for sure, they did not know definitively whether human beings did actually grow new brain cells but he demonstrated that in fact people do. He found people that were dying of some catastrophic illness who were enlightened enough to let him, they knew how important it would be to let him put a tracker in their blood. So these people that are dying, he puts a tracker in their blood that affixes itself to new, baby young brain cells. Then these people are really sick and they die and they do an autopsy and they cut their noggins open and sure enough they were growing new brain cells right up until the day and time they died.
Here is a wonderful short video (Time 1:35 Minutes) on the adult hippocampus and neurogenesis :
Here is a video (Time 4:34 Minutes) on neurogenesis and the effects of exercise by Dr. David Perlmutter:
Endorphins & Exercise
Endorphins (“endogenous morphine” or morphine within) are morphine like substances that are produced by the central nervous system and pituitary gland,
When you exercise you naturally produce endorphins, these chemicals create what is sometimes to referred to as a natural high in the brain and body. The function of endorphins are to knock out any pain you might be feeling and in turn produce a feel good state.
According to Tom Scheve in his article, What are Endorphins?
In the early 1970s, researchers were studying how the brain is affected by opiates, such as heroin or morphine. They found that opiates interact with specialized receptors in cells that are primarily massed in the brain and spinal cord. When opiates enter these receptors, they hinder or block the cell’s transmission of pain signals. But why, wondered the scientists studying this phenomenon, would these specialized receptors exist in the first place? The most plausible answer was that opioid receptors exist due to the presence of an opiatelike substance produced naturally in the body.
Enter endorphins: your own private narcotic. Endorphins are neurotransmitters, chemicals that pass along signals from one neuron to the next. Neurotransmitters play a key role in the function of the central nervous system and can either prompt or suppress the further signaling of nearby neurons.
Endorphins are produced as a response to certain stimuli, especially stress, fear or pain. They originate in various parts of your body — the pituitary gland, your spinal cord and throughout other parts of your brain and nervous system — and interact mainly with receptors in cells found in regions of the brain responsible for blocking pain and controlling emotion.
Inside each and everyone of us is our own pharmacy, that provides the right dose and quantity without any adverse side effects. How great is that?
Here is the original Slomo Documentary:
