Exercise Makes You Smarter, Thanks To A Common Gene

We already know that regular exercise makes you healthier and happier. But did you know it could also make you smarter? That’s the premise of an emerging area of neuroscientific research, in which scientists are exploring the neurological effects of getting your regular dose of cardio.  It turns out that exercise does a lot more than get the blood pumping: in about 60 percent of the population, it may be responsible for the expression of a gene that floods your cells with “brain derived neurotrophic factor” — or BDNF – a protein that is thought to help with mental acuity, learning and memory.

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