Why is swimming healthy?

In just under a month, the first Swim to Fight Cancer edition of the year will take place. The start of a season of 12 Swims in 12 different cities. Have you already signed up? The event is not only very special to participate in because you raise money for cancer research, swimming with Lifeguard Recertification Online is also very healthy. In this article you can read why.

Science has already shown that aerobic exercise (a gentle form of exercise) can slow down aging. However, a growing body of research suggests that swimming in particular has brain-boosting effects, such as a better immune response.

Neuroscientists are still trying to understand exactly why swimming is particularly beneficial in preventing aging — and may be close to the answer.

It's no secret that aerobic exercise can help stave off some of the ravages of aging. But a growing body of research suggests that swimming 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, triggers these brain-enhancing effects.

New and improved brain cells and connections

Until the 1960s, scientists believed that the number of neurons and synaptic connections in the human brain was finite and that once damaged, these brain cells could not be replaced. But that idea was debunked when researchers began to see abundant evidence for the birth of neurons, or neurogenesis, in adult brains of humans and other animals.

Now there is clear evidence that aerobic exercise can contribute to neurogenesis and play a key role in reversing or repairing 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 the brain's ability to change, stimulated by this protein has been shown to promote cognitive function, including learning and memory.

Research in humans has shown that there is a strong correlation between the concentrations of neurotrophic-derived brain factors in the brain and the increase in the size of the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for learning and memory. Increased concentrations of brain neurotrophic factor have also been shown to sharpen cognitive performance and help reduce anxiety and depression. In contrast, researchers have observed mood disturbances in patients with lower concentrations of the neurotrophic factor derived from the brain.

Aerobic exercise also promotes the release of specific chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. One of these is serotonin, which when present in increased levels is known to reduce depression and anxiety and improve mood.

But what is so special about swimming?

Researchers don't yet know what the secret sauce of swimming could be. But they are getting closer and closer to a better understanding of it.

Swimming has long been known for its cardiovascular benefits. Because swimming involves all major muscle groups, the heart has to work hard, increasing 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 increase creates 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 was shown to stimulate brain pathways that suppress inflammation in the hippocampus and inhibit apoptosis, or cell death. The study also found that swimming may aid neuron survival and reduce the cognitive consequences of aging. While researchers don't yet have a way to visualize apoptosis and neuronal survival in humans, they are observing similar cognitive outcomes.

One of the more interesting questions is how swimming improves short- and long-term memory. To determine how long the beneficial effects can 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 water maze with six arms, including one with a hidden platform.

The rats were given six attempts to swim free and find the hidden platform. After just seven days of swimming training, the researchers saw improvements in both short- and long-term memory, based on a reduction in the number of mistakes the rats made each day. The researchers suggested that this improvement 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 with Online Lifeguard Recertification.

While the leap from rat studies to humans is significant, human research is yielding similar results pointing to a clear cognitive benefit of swimming at all ages. For example, in a study examining the effect of swimming on mental acuity in the elderly, the researchers concluded that swimmers had improved mental speed and attention compared to non-swimmers. However, this study is limited in its study design, as the participants were not randomized and so those who swam before the study may have been given an unfair advantage.

Another study compared cognition between athletes on land and swimmers in the young adult age group. While the water immersion itself made no difference, the researchers found that 20 minutes of moderate-intensity breaststroke swimming improved cognitive function in both groups.