Includes index

Introduction: making the connection -- Welcome to the revolution: a case study on exercise and the brain -- Learning: grow your brain cells -- Stress: the greatest challenge -- Anxiety: nothing to panic about -- Depression: move your mood -- Attention deficit: running from distraction -- Addiction: reclaiming the biology of self-control -- Hormonal changes: the impact on women's brain health -- Aging: the wise way -- The regimen: build your brain -- Afterword: fanning the flames

This book explores the mind-body connection, presenting startling research to prove that exercise is truly our best defense against everything from depression to ADD to addiction to aggression to menopause to Alzheimer's. The latest research shows that for your brain to function at its peak, your body needs to move. Here the author, physician demonstrates exactly how and why physical activity is crucial to the way you think and feel. He explains how aerobic exercise prepares your brain to learn, improves mood and attention, lowers stress and anxiety, helps stave off addiction, controls the sometimes tumultuous effects of hormonal changes, and guards against and even reverses some of the effects of aging on the brain