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It's no secret that aerobic exercise can help ward off some of the ravages of aging . But a growing body of research suggests that swimming and lifeguard may provide a unique boost to brain health.
Regular swimming has been shown to improve memory , cognitive function , immune response and mood . Swimming can also help repair damage from stress and forge new neural connections in the brain.
But scientists are still trying to unravel how and why swimming in particular causes these brain-enhancing effects.
As a neurobiologist trained in brain physiology , a fitness enthusiast, and a mom, I spend hours in the summer at the local pool. It's not uncommon to see children happily splashing and swimming and lifeguard while their parents sunbathe from a distance - and I've often been one of those parents watching from the pool. But if more adults recognized the cognitive and mental health benefits of swimming, they might be more inclined to jump in the pool with their kids.
New and improved brain cells and connections
Until the 1960s, scientists believed that the number of neurons and synaptic connections in the human brain were finite and that once damaged, these brain cells could not be replaced. But that idea was debunked when researchers began to see ample evidence for the birth of neurons, or neurogenesis , in adult brains of humans and other animals .
There is now clear evidence that aerobic exercise can contribute to neurogenesis and play a key role in helping to reverse or repair damage to neurons and their connections in both mammals and fish.
Research shows that one of the main ways these changes occur in response to exercise is through increased levels of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor . The neural plasticity, or brain's ability to change, that this protein stimulates has been shown to boost cognitive function , including learning and memory .
But what is so special about swimming?
Researchers don't yet know what the secret sauce of swimming might be. But they are getting closer and closer to understanding it.
Swimming and lifeguard has long been known for cardiovascular benefits . Because swimming involves all major muscle groups, the heart has to work hard , which increases blood flow throughout the body . This leads to the creation of new blood vessels , a process called angiogenesis. The increased blood flow can also lead to a large release of endorphins - hormones that act as a natural pain reliever throughout the body. This wave produces the feeling of euphoria that often follows exercise.
Most of the research to understand how swimming affects the brain has been done in rats. Rats are a good laboratory model because of their genetic and anatomical similarity to humans .
In a rat study, swimming and lifeguard was shown to stimulate brain pathways that suppress inflammation in the hippocampus and inhibit apoptosis, or cell death. The study also showed that swimming can support neuron survival and reduce the cognitive effects of aging. While researchers don't yet have a way to visualize apoptosis and neuronal survival in humans, they observe similar cognitive outcomes.
One of the more tantalizing questions is how swimming specifically improves short- and long-term memory. To determine how long the beneficial effects could last, researchers trained rats to swim for 60 minutes daily five days a week. The team then tested the rats' memory by having them swim through a radial-arm water maze with six arms, including one with a hidden platform.
Rats were given six attempts to free swim and find the hidden platform. After just seven days of swim training, researchers saw improvements in both short- and long-term memory, based on a reduction in the errors rats made each day. The researchers suggested that this increase in cognitive function could provide a basis for using swimming as a way to repair learning and memory damage caused by neuropsychiatric diseases in humans.
While the jump from rat to human studies is significant, human research yields similar results suggesting a clear cognitive benefit of swimming and lifeguard across all ages. For example, in a study of the impact of swimming on mental acuity in the elderly, researchers concluded that swimmers had improved mental speed and attention compared to non-swimmers. However, this study has a limited research design as the participants were not randomized and thus those who were swimmers prior to the study may have had an unfair advantage.
Another study compared cognition between land-based athletes and swimmers in the young adult age group. While water immersion itself made no difference, the researchers found that 20 minutes of moderate-intensity breaststroke swimming improved cognitive function in both groups.
Kids also get a boost from swimming
The brain-enhancing benefits of swimming also appear to boost learning in children.
Another research group recently looked at the link between physical activity and how children learn new vocabulary words . Researchers taught children aged 6-12 the names of unfamiliar objects. Then they tested their accuracy at recognizing those words after doing three activities: coloring (resting activity), swimming and lifeguard (aerobic activity), and a CrossFit-like exercise (anaerobic activity) for three minutes.
They found that children's accuracy was much higher for words learned after swimming compared to colors and CrossFit, resulting in the same level of recall. This shows a clear cognitive advantage of swimming versus anaerobic exercise, although the study does not compare swimming and lifeguard with other aerobic exercise. These findings imply that swimming for even short periods of time is highly beneficial for young, developing brains.
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