April 13, 2022

Episode 273 | How Exercise Can Improve Pain, Mental Wellbeing, And Brain Health With Jennifer Heisz, Ph.D.

34 minutes

As always, I am delighted and honored to be spending this time with you. I recorded an episode on embodied cognition and the body's role in thought with Psychologist Rebecca Fincher-Kiefer. In that episode, we discuss the importance of using the body as a therapeutic tool for helping modulate difficult emotions or thoughts that people may encounter from chronic pain or other various chronic health conditions. As physical therapists, using the body as a tool for healing from pain or other conditions, whether it's physical or mental, is a big part of what we do.

In this episode, we're going to go deeper into how to use the body, including how to use exercise and physical activity to improve pain as well as mental wellbeing with Dr. Jennifer Heisz. She is an expert in brain health. She's an Associate Professor and Canada research chair in Brain Health and Aging in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University. She directs the NeuroFitLab, which has attracted over $1 million to support her research program on the effects of exercise and physical activity on brain health.

Her award-winning research examines the effects of physical activity on brain function to promote mental health and wellbeing in young adults, older adults and individuals with Alzheimer's disease. She has a new book coming out called Move The Body, Heal The Mind, which examines the latest research on how exercise can help you overcome anxiety, depression and dementia, improve focus and creativity, sleep better and even improve chronic pain. Without further ado, let's begin with Dr. Jennifer Heisz and learn about how we can use exercise and physical activity to improve brain health.

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