Exercise Boosts the Brain In Alzheimer’s Patients, According to Research

It is widely accepted that exercise is good for your health, but can it even increase brain cells? That is the conclusion from several new reports published in the first issue of the journal Brain Plasticity. Overall, the publications presented several pieces of compelling evidence revealing that exercise benefits the brain, both in healthy individuals and in those with various neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
One study, titled "Running Improves Pattern Separation during Novel Object Recognition," conducted in Basel, Switzerland, examined a type of cognitive task known as "pattern separation," and focused on how running may improve the brain's ability to distinguish the shapes of different objects. The researchers found that mice that spend time running in wheels have an increase in brain cells in a critical region known as the hippocampus, an area that helps process short term to long term memory. This region also degenerates in people who have Alzheimer's disease. Not surprisingly then, animals that run more also do better in tasks designed to measure memory abilities, including pattern separation.
According to lead researcher Josef Bischofberger, PhD, Professor, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, “Our research indicates that exercise-induced increase in neurogenesis improves pattern separation by supporting unique and detailed long-term representations of similar but

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