Placenta Brain and what YOU can do about enhancing your brainpower!

If you’ve ever spent any length of time around a pregnant woman, or been one yourself, you may be familiar with the term placenta brain. A common affliction (not an actual medical term, mind you), placenta brain is characterized by forgetfulness- temporarily being unable to recall your brother’s name, where you put your car keys, or how to get somewhere you’ve been many times before. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to completely subside once you’ve delivered your baby (and therefore also the placenta). I’m sorry to report that you may suffer from a mild form of placenta brain, known after delivery as mommy brain, for the rest of your adult life- or at least until your children are adults themselves!

Aside from attempting the Sudoku puzzles in the paper and taking detailed notes whenever you make an appointment or meet someone new- is there anything we can do about it? Yes! Recent research has shown that exercise can do great things for toning up your mood, memory, and ability to learn!

In the August 2010 issue of U.S. News & World Report author, Deborah Kotz, identified these 5 things that exercise can do to enhance your brainpower in her article “Exercise Your Body- and Brain”:

1. Reverse the detrimental effects of stress by boosting levels of “soothing” neurotransmitters and reverse the signs of aging at the cellular level.

2. Lift depression! Exercise as effective as an antidepressant? We’re not going there. Please don’t stop taking your medications as a result of reading this post! But it does stimulate the growth of neurons in certain regions of the brain damaged during depression. How much exercise to feel the effects on depression? Burn 350 calories, 3X/week, through sustained, sweat-inducing activity.

3. Enhance learning! Exercise increases the level of brain chemicals that help make new brain cells and establish connections between cells to enhance learning and upgrades the capacity to learn by enhancing attention and concentration skills. It is best achieved by complicated activities such as playing tennis or taking dance class- or combination moves at Stroller Strides class!

4. Build self-esteem and improve body image as you see your fitness successes. This isn’t necessarily a change in your body shape but running a faster mile, lifting a heavier weight or using a more intense resistance band, or holding your plank longer, among others.

5. Leaves you with a feeling of euphoria known as a “runners high” and is best achieved through interval training such as sprint bursts while running, biking, or swimming

Exercise is the single best thing you can do for your brain in terms of mood, memory, and learning. Even 10 minutes of activity changes your brain.

-John Ratey, Harvard Medical School psychiatrist and author of the book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain