Run, Refresh and Reduce

Ever feel charged up after a run? Besides bombarding you with those feel-good endorphins, recent research found that running mitigated the negative impact of chronic stress on the part of the brain in charge of learning and memory.

Stress weakens your neural connections, which over time impacts memory. But when stressed subjects exercised, those connections remained intact.

Another study published in Cell Metabolism found that those same brain-benefiting mechanisms also helped strengthen the immune system and amped fat metabolism: Exercise reduces the chemicals associated with depression and mental illness and converts them into other chemicals that act positively in the body, turning white fat cells into energy-burning brown cells and enhancing the ability of immune cells to combat inflammation.