Physical exercise is like a natural wonder drug for your brain and body. It gets your heart to pump life-giving blood into your brain, supplying more oxygen, glucose and nutrients that your brain needs to function at its best. The benefits of exercise are tremendous:

• it encourages the growth of new brain cells
• it enhances cognitive ability
• it improves your mood, calms anxiety, and helps alleviate depression
• it fends off cognitive decline while it helps prevent, delay, and lessen the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
• it enhances the ability of insulin to prevent high blood sugar levels, reducing the risk of diabetes
• it burns fat
• it helps ward off osteoporosis, breast cancer, and colon cancer
• it improves muscle tone and endurance, which lowers the risk of fall accidents
• it reduces the symptoms of ADD
• it improves sleep
• it can help women better cope with hormonal issues
• it reduces the risk of high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease.

That’s a lot of benefit just for putting aside an hour four or more times a week to get your body moving. Plus, once you get over any initial resistance, it feels great. And those positive feelings seem to spill over into other areas of your life, where you start making healthier choices. People who are more physically active are also more likely to eat brain-healthy foods, get more and better quality sleep, seek out health-minded social support systems and just take better care of themselves in general.

Live LIfe #VoxxLife Strong