Good Chemicals & Neurons In Brain Elevated Among Exercise Addicts

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Hello CR ALL:

Here is an article that discusses some benefits of exercise.

And lack of exercise activates cravings for natural rewards

such as food, sex, and drugs of abuse (last paragraph).

......................................

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/09/030929053719.htm

Content of last paragraph:

" In addition, they have demonstrated that when mice

are kept from their normal running routine, brain regions

involved in craving for natural rewards such as food,

sex, and drugs of abuse become activated.

It [the mouse exercise experiments] is allowing

to study the relationship between natural craving, like

hunger, and drug craving due to a pathological addiction. "

......................................

Here is more of the article:

PORTLAND, Ore. – Exercise enthusiasts have more reasons to

put on their running shoes in the morning, but an Oregon

Health & Science University scientist says they shouldn't

step up their work-outs just yet.

A study published today in the journal Neuroscience, journal

of the International Brain Research Organization, confirmed

that exercise increases the chemical BDNF – brain-derived

neurotrophic factor – in the hippocampus, a curved, elongated

ridge in the brain that controls learning and memory. BDNF is

involved in protecting and producing neurons in the hippocampus.

" When you exercise, it's been shown you release BDNF, " said

study co-author , Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow

in the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience at OHSU's School

of Medicine and at the Veterans Administration Medical Center

in Portland. " BDNF helps support and strengthen synapses in

the brain. We find that exercise increases these good things. "

Mice bred for 30 generations to display increased voluntary

wheel running behavior – an " exercise addiction " – showed

higher amounts of BDNF than normal, sedentary mice. In fact,

the BDNF concentration in the active mice increased by as

much as 171 percent after seven nights of wheel running.

" These mice are more active than wild mice, " said,

referring to the mice as small and lean, and seemingly

" addicted " to exercise. " Wheel running causes a huge amount

of activity in the hippocampus. The more running, the more BDNF. "

....

In addition, they have demonstrated that when mice

are kept from their normal running routine, brain regions

involved in craving for natural rewards such as food, sex,

and drugs of abuse become activated.

It [the mouse exercise experiments] is allowing

to study the relationship between natural craving, like

hunger, and drug craving due to a pathological addiction.

-- Warren