Spark
A groundbreaking and fascinating investigation into the transformative effects of exercise on the brain, from the bestselling author and renowned psychiatrist John J. Ratey, MD.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 J. Ratey, M.D., embarks upon a fascinating and entertaining journey through 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. Filled with amazing case studies (such as the revolutionary fitness program in Naperville, Illinois, which has put this 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---or, for that matter, simply the way you think
Stats for nerds
34recommend
54mentions
40people
2009–2026years
81% recommend19% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- read¹ the book "Spark" and a school instituted a daily exercise program. Kids were happier, fought less and got better grades.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316113514
[1] well, listened to the audiobook while walking
- The audiobook Spark by Dr. John Ratey, psychiatrist is a great listen with a bunch more evidence based arguments to support that exercise is better then drugs for depression.
I highly recommend the audiobook as it is read by him and he is very enthusiastic about his research.
The one quote I remember from the book is that he stopped prescribing Prozac and started prescribing treadmills...
- I would recommend Spark by John Ratey for a brilliant look at the mechanisms at play here.
- Well, there is lots of evidence that movement and exercise is excellent for your brain physiologically and psychologically.
https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-...
- From a similar view, the book, "Spark: How Exercise will improve your performance by Dr. John Ratey" has other benefits of exercising:
1. Exercise is better than Zoloft in treating depression
2. Students with higher fitness scores also have higher test scores
3. People learn vocabulary words 20 percent faster following exercise than they did before exercise
4. A massive Dutch study of 19,288 twins and their families published in 2006 showed that exercisers are less anxious, less depressed, less neurotic, and also more socially outgoing.
5. A study in London in 2004 showed that even ten minutes of exercise could blunt an alcoholic’s craving.
I wrote a summary/highlight of the key ideas in the book here : https://www.chestergrant.com/highlights-from-spark-how-exerc...
- The book "Spark" by John Ratey also talks a lot about how regular aerobic exercise simply balances out a lot of systems, and very likely will help against everything from depression to Alzheimers.
