Health Tip – Feb. 4 – Exercise for Your Baby’s Brain

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    Dee Dee - Health Tip
    Dee Dee – Health Tip

    Being active during pregnancy may speed development of your baby’s brain. A study from Canada showed that jogging, swimming or cycling for as little as 20 minutes three times a week starting at the beginning of the second trimester made a measurable difference in the activity of the babies’ brains, according to researchers from the University of Montreal.

    The investigators divided 60 women into exercise and non-exercise groups. To check the effect of the exercise on the infants’ brains, the researchers measured the babies’ brain activity while they slept on their mothers’ laps when they were eight to 12 days old. The EEGs used for the test showed that the babies of the active mothers had a “more mature cerebral activation,” which suggests that their brains developed more rapidly than the offspring of women who didn’t exercise.

    This was the first study of the effect of exercise on human brain development. Earlier research has shown that exercise during pregnancy can ease post-partum recovery, make pregnancy more comfortable and reduce the risk of obesity in the children.

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