We already know that regular exercise makes you healthier, happier and, well, hotter. But did you know it could also make you smarter? That's the premise of an emerging area of neuroscientific research, in which scientists are exploring the neurological effects of getting your regular dose of cardio.
It turns out that exercise does a lot more than get the blood pumping: in about 60 percent of the population, it may be responsible for the expression of a gene that floods your cells with “brain derived neurotrophic factor" -- or BDNF – a protein that is thought to help with mental acuity, learning and memory.
“For mental health benefits, what really counts is exercising on a regular basis -- not the intensity. You don’t have to wipe yourself out,” Michael Hopkins says. “The basic goal is, get up and move your whole body more than half of the days of the week.”
On the flip side to that equation....recent studies show that high fructose corn syrup seems to deter the ability of the synapses in the brain to change, a key factor in learning. High fructose corn syrup also disrupts the sugar-regulating protein insulin in a brain area called the hippocampus, which play a role in memory formation in both rats and humans
