Did you know you can beat stress, lift your mood, fight memory loss, sharpen your intellect, and function better than ever simply by elevating your heart rate and breaking a sweat? The evidence is incontrovertible: aerobic exercise physically remodels our brains for peak performance. In SPARK, John Ratey, MD embarks upon a fascinating journey through the mind-body connection, illustrating that exercise is truly our best defense against everything from depression to ADD to addiction to menopause to Alzheimer's. Filled with amazing case studies (such as the revolutionary fitness program in Naperville, Illinois, that has put the local school district of 19,000 kids first in the world of science test scores), SPARK is the first book to explore comprehensively the connection between exercise and the brain. It will change forever the way you think about your morning run.
Spark
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Pre-order Price Guarantee! Order now and if the Amazon.com price decreases between your order time and the end of the day of the release date, you'll receive the lowest price. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
Review
Forget fish oil and sudoku - it's exercise that makes you brainier This book is the first time scientific evidence from all over the world has been pulled together to show that the fitter you are, the better your brain works' Daily Mail. 'If exercise came in pill form, it would be plastered across the front page, hailed as the blockbuster drug of the century. So what you waiting for? Get moving!' Focus Magazine.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
John Ratey, M.D. is a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is the author of numerous bestselling and groundbreaking books, including Driven to Distraction and A User's Guide to the Brain. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has a private practice. Eric Hagerman is a former editor of Popular Science and Outside. His work has been featured in The Best American Sports Writing 2004, Men's Journal, and PLAY.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
239 of 247 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Brain on Exercise,
By steven langston "searcher" (Kentucky United States) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (Hardcover)
This book explains in clear terms the role exercise plays in our mental processes. Moving our muscles produces proteins that play roles in our highest thought processes. Ratey says, "thinking is the internalization of movement." He illustrates this with the story of the sea squirt that hatches with a rudimentary spinal cord and 300 brain cells. It has only hours to find a spot of coral on which to put down roots or die. When it does put down roots, it eats its brain. According to Ratey only a moving animal needs a brain.
He begins with the value exercise has for the learning process in high school students: improved academic performance, alertness, attention and motivation. He cites studies that say we can alter our mental states by physically moving. He said depression is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. He then presents a chapter where depression is relieved in case studies by exercise. Among the areas Ratey covers are: stress, depression, ADD, and aging. This book is a great motivator for exercise. However, Ratey's work was preceded by Glenn Doman's. Doman advocated exercise for brain injured children in the 1950s when the only 'treatment' was to institutionalize them. He later started a `super babies' program. Both the educational and medical establishments attacked and marginalized Doman's work.
99 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eye Opening,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (Hardcover)
Our doctors always say to get more exercise. We always yawn and say of course; we've heard it all before. And then we are mediocre in our follow up. After reading Spark my entire viewpoint has changed. Exercise is a master key to brain functioning. Cholesterol and other system problems caused by lack of exercise are a bit ambiguous since we often can't directly feel them until we manifest some disease. Brain functioning is something else entirely. We can feel an almost immediate change after aerobic exercise. After reading Spark I definitely have become a six day a week exerciser. I need my brain functioning as well as possible, and the data in this book has made a believer out out of me.
104 of 116 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The brain-exercise connection finally explained !!,
By
This review is from: Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (Hardcover)
Having ready 2 previous books by John : The users guide to brain and Driven
by distraction i was looking forward to reading SPARK. I was especially interested in learning how John was going to tie exercise with the brain functioning since i am a strong supporter of exercise and have experienced its benefits. I knew before reading SPARK that exercise in some way does make you feel better. But SPARK puts it in perspective from a scientific point of view. The chapters on Stress and depression particularly caught my attention since most of us struggle with these 2 issues at some point in life and again most of us turn to popping a pill to deal with it. If its as simple as getting on a treadmill or a bike and working out for 30-45 minutes without any side effects, then it seems only logical to do it. The BDNF (Miracle-gro as John calls it) was a very interesting read for me. I did had to go back and re-read certain topics as was it too much medical terms to comprehend in one read. But once i got it, it became permanent and that's the beauty of this book. Its simple yet powerful in its message. The simplicity comes from the fact that "you goto workout ". The power comes from the facts / data that proves "why you goto workout". Once the reader ties the two together, the message is very clear and hopefully will remain for a lifetime with the reader. Today if you look around there is a lot of awareness among people about the ill-effects of obesity. There are TV programs, advertisements, books about why exercising is good for you and how it will help you be more fit. But this is the only books that tells you that exercise will also make your brain fit along with your body. The brain-body connection is important and one cannot be ignored over the other. |
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
(learn more)
reward center Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Attention Deficit, Odyssey House, Zero Hour, United States, The Regimen, Hormonal Changes, Carl Cotman, Columbia University, Madison Junior High, Robert Pyles, Arthur Kramer, University of Michigan, National Institute, Ned Hallowell, Duke University, Jessie Wolfrum, University of California, Mark Mattson, Scott Small, Naperville Central Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
reward center Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Attention Deficit, Odyssey House, Zero Hour, United States, The Regimen, Hormonal Changes, Carl Cotman, Columbia University, Madison Junior High, Robert Pyles, Arthur Kramer, University of Michigan, National Institute, Ned Hallowell, Duke University, Jessie Wolfrum, University of California, Mark Mattson, Scott Small, Naperville Central Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
