Brain-Body Breakthroughs – Get smart with exercise! An interview with Dr. Arthur Kramer

Summary: If you want to lose weight, stay healthy and protect your heart, exercise is a dose of just what the doctor ordered. However, it may be one of the best things for your brain if you want to think more clearly, learn faster, prevent Alzheimer's disease and age more gracefully. My guest, Arthur Kramer (http://www.beckman.illinois.edu/directory/a-kramer), Ph. D., Director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology (http://www.beckman.illinois.edu/about/index.aspx) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tells how his interest in science and jock-like activities conspired to propel him into a career as a distinguished scientist who speinfocializes in cognition and brain plasticity. Brain plasticity was recently popularized by Norman Doidge in his book The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (http://www.amazon.com/Brain-That-Changes-Itself-Frontiers/dp/0143113100/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307663432&sr=1-3). While much has been said of neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to re-wire itself on the fly) and its ability to help heal from stokes, head trauma and even Alzheimer's disease, there have been painfully few therapeutic interventions designed to use it in a meaningful fashion. In this episode of Brain-Body Breakthroughs Dr. Kramer reveals how certain types of exercise can literally revitalize brain structure and function. He discusses startling new findings illustrating how exercise can turn back the clock on brain aging, especially involving the frontal lobes where executive functions such as working memory are located. He'll tell us what to do if we want to make that memory center called the hippocampus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocampus) bigger and better and how to learn faster at any age. And he'll provide insight into tools that work effectively on refurbishing brain skills whether you're 20 or 70.