Build Yourself a Stress-Resistant Brain

We found this research not only fascinating, but directly connected to many important goals -- exercising, losing weight, reducing stress and even conquering fears.  The New York Times recently pointed out several studies indicating that when you exercise regularly, over time you grow new brain cells that are resistant to anxiety.  

It was already understood that exercise leads to the growth of new brain cells; but this characteristic of the cells was previously unknown.

In one of the studies, scientists at Princeton took two groups of rats; one group got plenty of exercise, the other very little.  After some time passed, each group had a swim in cold water, an activity rats don't like.  Afterward, the scientists examined the animals' brains, and discovered that while there were signs of stress in both groups, the new brain cells in the rats that had exercised showed no sign of stress.

This was just one of a number of studies showing that stimuli that would otherwise increase stress in rats had less impact on rats that exercised.  Somehow the physical stress of exercise had made the rats better able to deal with stress of all sorts:

It looks more and more like the positive stress of exercise prepares cells and structures and pathways within the brain so that they’re more equipped to handle stress in other forms,” says Michael Hopkins, a graduate student affiliated with the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Laboratory at Dartmouth, who has been studying how exercise differently affects thinking and emotion. “It’s pretty amazing, really, that you can get this translation from the realm of purely physical stresses to the realm of psychological stressors.”

One thing all the researchers agree on is that the change in brain chemistry doesn't happen overnight.  For rats, it takes between three and six weeks for the changes to take effect.  In humans, it may take more time, or it may take less.  But the moral is, don't quit -- the reward for sticking with it could be a calmer, more enjoyable life.