Maximizing the Neurological Benefits of Exercise with Constant Focus
Do you know about all of the cognitive benefits that exercise can give you? There are a ton of them. And the scientific literature just published new results that are truly enlightening. Unfortunately, not everyone can exercise as much as they like, or whenever they want. Below, we're going to talk about the brain benefits you're giving up by saying no to exercise - and how you may be able to get some of them back by saying yes to Constant Focus.
Benefits of Exercise for the Brain
Certain foods - such as meat, eggs, spinach, and nuts - are high in an amino enzyme called tryptophan. Under optimal conditions, your body converts most of the tryptophan you eat into a neurotransmitter called serotonin. Serotonin provides many different cognitive benefits:
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It helps you feel awake and alert during the day
It reduces anxiety so that you're less distracted or preoccupied with unpleasant thoughts
It can make boring, mundane tasks less unbearable and easier to focus on so that you are more productive
It can help you feel less stressed at night so that you sleep better
All of these things help contribute towards better cognitive function!
Exercise improves cardiovascular health in every inch of your body, including the brain. When you have a healthier cardiovascular system, you deliver more blood flow - along with more oxygen and nutrients - directly to your brain cells. This helps your neurons work better, function more rapidly, and helps you store memories more efficiently.
Lastly, for most people, there's a secondary effect of better overall nutrition associated with increased exercise. Sure, people have tried to balance a healthy, robust exercise regimen with a Standard American Diet - but it's difficult to maintain. It doesn't contain the nutrients your body needs in order to stay optimally healthy and perform at its best in the gym. So people end up eating more nutritious meals and indulging in healthier food cravings simply out of necessity. When your brain cells are properly nourished, it amplifies and compounds the cognitive benefits you get from having a healthy cardiovascular system.
This Is Your Brain Off Exercise
When you don't exercise enough, tryptophan is less likely to get converted into serotonin; this is especially true if your diet also lacks B vitamins and your body decides to convert that tryptophan into niacin instead. This creates a doubly negative effect because not only will you end up deficient in serotonin, but the process of converting tryptophan into other substances creates inflammatory neurotoxins like kynurenine. All of these things are terrible for your brain's health and functionality.
Serotonin and the Brain
Serotonin deficiency is one of the leading causes of depression and other mental health disorders in the civilized world. Even if you don't have a clinical level of serotonin deficiency, it can leave you feeling anxious, grumpy, make it difficult to get quality sleep at night, and even give you the dreaded "brain fog" that's so many of us are trying to avoid. The increase in neurotoxic inflammation is also pretty bad news. In the short-term, it acutely compromises your ability to think clearly, react quickly, and remember things efficiently. In the long-term, it can speed up cognitive decline and contribute significantly to age-related brain disease.
Skipping the occasional workout doesn't necessarily mean it'll compromise your cognitive function forever. But there is a mountain of scientific literature which shows that chronically denying your body the exercise it needs can indirectly (and sometimes even directly) compromise the health and functionality of your prefrontal cortex. Your prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain responsible for making decisions - both the good, and the bad.
As you might expect, when your prefrontal cortex isn't functioning optimally, you're more vulnerable to making poor decisions. That usually starts with food. Indulging in unhealthy, sugary comfort foods is notorious for compromising your cognitive function as soon as the dopamine hit wears off, your blood sugar drops, and your body starts to go through withdrawals. If you indulge too frequently, it becomes a vicious cycle. Indulging in poor food choices too frequently also means that you will be denying your brain the vital nutrients that your neurons need to function at their best. Over time, this can contribute to cognitive decline.
Serotonin and Sleep
Just because serotonin helps you feel alert and happy during the day doesn't mean it isn't an important part of your nightly rhythm. Remember when we talked earlier about serotonin lowering anxiety levels? This becomes especially important in the evening when it is time for bed.
One of the biggest challenges for people who are chronically sleep-deprived is anxiety. Even if you don't have a clinical diagnosis, anxiety can still be devastating when it comes to your sleep health. A lack of adequate serotonin levels in the brain makes you more vulnerable to anxious thoughts - especially at night, when you don't have anything else to distract you from them. And guess what: a lack of proper sleep also compromises cognitive function in the prefrontal cortex.
What If You Can't Exercise? Reach for Constant Focus
Don't get us wrong: exercise is best. Robust aerobic exercise is especially good for brain health and cognitive function, as well as your cardiovascular system. But if you can't exercise as much as you'd like to, you can help get some of the brain boosting effects of exercise by taking a supplement like Constant Focus. Constant Focus contains natural, safe ingredients like ginkgo biloba for enhanced blood flow to the brain and nutrient delivery to your neurons. It also contains B vitamins and other nutrients which help your brain cells function at their best. Once your cognitive function starts to improve, it'll be easier to motivate yourself to go to the gym and get that exercise your body craves! And when you're ready to give Constant Focus a try for yourself, click here to learn more.