Love a good workout, the feeling of your body getting stronger as you build muscle, the wind whipping through your hair as you run through the park?

Well according to researchers at MIT, your exercise routine could be doing more than just strengthening your muscles and helping your immune system.

In fact, your workout could be benefiting even your neurons. That’s because the biochemical signals, known as myokines, released by your muscles as they contract help neurons to grow – sometimes even four times as fast as neurons who don’t come into contact with myokines.

This research, which was recently published in the academic journal Advanced Healthcare Materials, could be vital for patients and doctors dealing with cases of nerve damage. It could suggest that exercise is important to repairing nerves, and will help this happen much faster, as MIT’s Ritu Raman – senior author on the study – explained in a statement:

“Now that we know this muscle-nerve crosstalk exists, it can be useful for treating things like nerve injury, where communication between nerve and muscle is cut off. Maybe if we stimulate the muscle, we could encourage the nerve to heal, and restore mobility to those who have lost it due to traumatic injury or neurodegenerative diseases.”

Raman and her team grew various types of cells in the lab, all derived from mice. They modified the cells so that they would contract when they were exposed to light. The cells were then placed in front of a light which flashed, simulating repeated contraction and relaxation of the muscle tissue, the same motion caused by exercise. They then collected samples from the solution around the muscle, to check for myokines.

After confirming the presence of myokines, the solution was introduced to motor neurons. They observed as the motor neurones grew quickly after the introduction of the myokine solution, discovering that the process happened four times faster than the growth of similar motor neurone cells without the presence of myokines. They were better functioning too, as Raman explained:

“They grow much farther and faster, and the effect is pretty immediate. We saw that many of the genes up-regulated in the exercise-stimulated neurons was not only related to neuron growth, but also neuron maturation, how well they talk to muscles and other nerves, and how mature the axons are. Exercise seems to impact not just neuron growth but also how mature and well-functioning they are.”

Why is this important?

Well nerve damage is more common than you might think.

As well as damage associated with injuries, many people around the world suffer from conditions and diseases related to the degeneration of neurones. Alongside many other symptoms, can lead to reduced mobility.

It is hoped that as this study develops, the knowledge that exercise can stimulate the growth and strength of neurones, leading to faster and better nerve growth, will help people suffering with these conditions.

And it only further underlines the message that exercise can help you even down to the cellular level.

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