More good news about exercise--grows your brain

"A pair of thumb-sized struc­tures deep in the cen­ter of the human brain are crit­i­cal for our abil­ity to learn and remem­ber. Thanks to their shape, each of them is called hip­pocam­pus — which means sea­horse in Greek. These brain areas have the unique capac­ity to gen­er­ate new neu­rons every day. In fact, recent human stud­ies have shown that there are 700 new brain cells in the hip­pocam­pus every day. Most of these neu­rons, how­ever, do not sur­vive. In their new-born (pre-mature) phase, they need a great deal of sup­port to sur­vive, grow, and become an active mem­ber of the hip­pocam­pal com­mu­nity of neurons.

Research shows that we have the capac­ity to grow new neu­rons above and beyond what is gen­er­ally pro­duced in our hip­pocam­pus and to make them become mature and strong within weeks and months. The best way to gen­er­ate new hip­pocam­pal neu­rons is to exer­cise. . . "

Rest of article here. 

But it can also shrink . . . so look out.