YET more ammunition to fire at non-runners came in the form of another recent study. It showed treadmill running may help improve your memory by releasing a protein that can be directly traced from the muscles to the brain.
According to scientists reporting in the journal Cell Metabolism, levels of a controversial protein called cathepsin B increased in the blood of mice, monkeys, and humans after they had been running. In other studies, cathepsin B has been shown to be secreted by tumours and has been linked to cell death and plaque formation in the brain.
However, the latest investigation seemed to support findings that suggest the protein is neuroprotective. Running regularly, rather than excessively, is key. “In humans who exercise consistently for four months, better performance on complex recall tasks, such as drawing from memory, is correlated with increased cathepsin B levels,” said lead author Henriette van Praag, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Ageing in the US.