Sep 29, 2011
Neurotransmitters and Physical Exercise From Super Body, Super Brain Book by Michael Gonzalez-Wallace
"Exercise makes you feel better" You probably have heard this before but the reality is that we have such a wonderful cocktail of brain chemicals that helps us move, communicate, speak and more! One of the greatest ways of improving these brain chemicals is through exercise. Try this exercise to feel how these chemicals function in less than 10 seconds:
From a standing position start clapping and taping as fast as possible. how do you feel? Exactly your brain chemicals are functioning! Exercise improves our brain chemicals. Over hundred studies have shown the incredible benefits of moving.
Neurotransmitters refer to those spaces between nerve cells that different neurotransmitters need to leap across in order to transmit their information to other neurons.
We have billions of neurons does that mean that we have million of neurotransmitters? Absolutely not. Think of our alphabet how many letters do you know? 26? How many words exist? Billions (Robert Sapolsky, neurobiologist Stanford University). So we are looking at thirty neurotransmitters but would like to focus in those ones that are affected by exercise. By the way there are many more but will speak about the following ones:
Dopamine is attracted by novelty, logical reasoning and muscle movement. Dopamine regulates processes that regulate movement, posture, blood pressure and more!
It is one of the most popular neurotransmitters since gets affects our emotional state. Exercise raises our serotonin levels improving its balance
The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the heart, blood vessels, sweat glands, the large internal organs, and the adrenal medulla in the brain. Like dopamine, norepinephrine has a stimulating effect, fosters alertness, and plays an important regulatory role in long-term memory and learning
They are your brain built in chemical system that help us go through pain and also induce mild euphoria. Exercise it is the absolute best way for raising our endorphins levels and trigger that feeling of the 'runners high"
copy and paste to see how neurotransmitters work