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piqer for: Global finds Health and Sanity Doing Good
Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
Your Runner Friends Are Right! Neuroscience Says So
I am a sedentary creature and have often dismissed my more energetic friends' claims of running being able to magically vanish their headaches, clear persistent doubts, and provide new perspectives as exaggerated utterances triggered by passion for the activity. But it turns out these sensations of improved brain-space and clear-headedness are not mere feelings but a matter of neurons.
This write-up by Melissa Dahl is quite like a good run — breezy, coherent and entertaining. It begins with what some famous people thought of running. Two of those I have to mention here. Author Monte Davis said in his book 'The Joy of Running' that “...it's hard to run and feel sorry for yourself at the same time”. Film personality Casey Neistat said last year that every major decision he has made has been “prefaced by a run”.
After nearly 30 years of research, neuroscientists are now saying they are right and have confirmed the link between aerobic activity and ‘cognitive clarity’. More exciting than this link (which researchers suspected for years) are the recent findings in the area of neurogenesis the article mentions.
Until recently, neuroscience believed human brains only have a specific number of neurons and these are constant. But new studies using animal models have revealed that neurons are, in fact, produced in the brain throughout our lifespan. And get this — the only known trigger is vigorous aerobic exercise!
More interesting is where these neurons are born — in the hippocampus, the learning and memory region. There is a caveat though; the aerobic activity must be vigorous (like running) and continue for at least 30 minutes. Post such an activity, increased blood flow to the frontal lobe has also been recorded — the region of the brain associated with focus, planning and, crucially, emotion management.
The article concludes with another curious point about the lack of research on the other activity that running induces — daydreaming and losing oneself in one’s thoughts.
