One of the books that we have told many friends and family about is Spark: The Revolutionary Science of Exercise and the Brain by John Ratey and Eric Hagerman. John Ratey, M.D. is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of numerous bestselling and groundbreaking books, including Driven to Distraction and A User’s Guide to the Brain. Ratey explores the mind-body connection, summarizing numerous research findings that show how exercise can be an enormously helpful defense against everything from depression to ADD, from addiction to aggression, and from menopause to Alzheimer’s. It will change forever the way you think about your exercise routine and just how important it can be to your whole life.
Although many folks already know that exercise is important to their physical health, it will undoubtedly surprise most people just how dramatically it improves all areas of mental functioning. Filled with amazing case studies, Spark is sure to get you more motivated about incorporating exercise into your life. One of the important stories it has to tell to parents is about the revolutionary fitness program in Naperville, Illinois, and how it put this school district of 19,000 kids first in the world of science test scores. Given the current trend to eliminate or reduce physical education activities in public schools due to budget cuts, this information will hopefully get parents’ attention and give them the information necessary to get proactive about the importance of including exercise in kids’ daily lives. We need to do this not only to combat early childhood obesity but to help them learn better!
We used to think that we were born with a certain number of brain cells and that all the “bad” things that we do (drinking, drugs, and junk food, to name a few) were depleting our limited supply, making dementia inevitable. Now, thanks to new technologies that have allowed us to examine the inner workings of the brain in ways never before possible, we know that we can create new brain cells throughout our lives. One of the best ways to do this is through aerobic exercise.Whether you are a parent, a psychotherapist, a coach, or a business executive, encourage your kids, clients and loved ones to check out this book. One more thing: be sure to ride your bike to the library to find it.
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