If you want to think clearly, better get moving!

You’ve heard the expression “use it or lose it.”

But what you may end up “losing” if you don’t move your legs enough, according to a new study, could be the health of your brain!

I’m sure you know how important exercise is for your body’s all-around well-being, especially your heart.

What this new research from Italy discovered, however, is that what may suffer the most from inactivity is your brain.

And exactly how that works is the most surprising part, having to do with the “communication” between your leg muscles and your nervous system.

As to how much is enough, well, that was the subject of similar study that came out at the same time.

Fortunately, you don’t need to do a 5K every day (or even anything close to that) to keep your mind sharp… your memories intact… and your brain in the best shape possible!

The brain-leg connection

Researcher Raffaella Adami believes that she and her team have discovered how to enhance what she calls “brain signaling,” something that’s “key” to the normal functioning of the brain.

And it all has to do with using our legs! As Adami says, “It’s no accident that we are meant to be active,” specifically walking, running, and doing tasks that use those large leg muscles.

Along with the messaging from your brain that enables your legs to move in the first place, the nervous system also communicates in the other direction – from your legs up to the brain – but only if you put those leg muscles to use.

For this study, the researchers restricted movement in the hind legs of mice for nearly a month.

By the end of the test period, those mice had lost 70 percent of the vital neural stem cells in their brains, compared to the other group of rodents who had free use of their hind legs.

Those lost cells play an instrumental role in maintaining a healthy brain. Without them, new cell development can’t take place, and existing cells start to deteriorate.

Yes, this was a study done in laboratory animals. However, the researchers believe that the “underlying biology” is the same.

Adami says that her study shows how people who are bedridden — even astronauts who can’t do “load-bearing” types of exercises (walking, dancing, climbing stairs, and playing tennis, as opposed to activities such as swimming) — lose more than muscle mass.

Not putting your legs to work on a continuous basis can alter your body chemistry “at the cellular level,” impacting the entire nervous system.

As to how much is necessary to keep your brain sharp and your Jeopardy! answers coming fast, that was the subject of a study out of the University of Miami.

After examining data for over 11,000 seniors, researchers discovered that the best results were found in those who put in 52 hours over a six-month time period. (The average time spent exercising in this study was an hour three times a week.)

But head researcher Joyce Gomes-Osman noted that she didn’t believe that to be some kind of “magic number.”

The team found that it was more about maintaining a consistent activity routine than it was about keeping a precise record on a Fitbit as to your daily time spent (or miles walked) exercising.

To get the benefits of a well-functioning brain, such as thinking faster and having better decision-making and problem-solving skills, you need to get ongoing “exposure” to exercise, professor Gomes-Osman said.

“Those are all mechanistic processes that take time to develop,” she added.

And being that it’s June, what better time to start being “exposed” to exercise than right now?

By the time the jingle bells start ringing again, you could be so accustomed to a weekly routine that any kind of weather won’t be able to keep you from your appointed rounds!

“Use your legs, boost your brain” Alan Mozes, May 29, 2018, HealthDay, consumer.healthday.com