John Ratey Quotes

#1. We can know ourselves only because we can remember.

John Ratey

#2. The more we build these networks and enrich our stores of memory and experience, the easier it is to learn, because what we already know serves as a foundation for forming increasingly complex thoughts.

John J. Ratey

#3. The average seventy-five-year-old suffers from three chronic medical conditions and takes five prescription medicines,

John J. Ratey

#4. About 20 percent of older adults who break a hip die within a year.

John J. Ratey

#5. the message I want to leave you with is that even as your body changes, exercise will keep your mind firm and taught.

John J. Ratey

#6. Exercise is another tool at your disposal, and it's handy because it's something you can prescribe for yourself,

John J. Ratey

#7. I tell people that going for a run is like taking a little bit of Prozac and a little bit of Ritalin because,

John J. Ratey

#8. One of the prominent features of exercise, which is sometimes not appreciated in studies, is an improvement in the rate of learning,

John J. Ratey

#9. But nutrition affects BDNF, too. Eating a diet high in sugar decreases BDNF. Eating foods with folate, vitamin B12, and omega-3 fats increases BDNF in the brain, just as exercise does.

John J. Ratey

#10. Exercise Is Medicine," so

John J. Ratey

#11. It turns out that moving our muscles produces proteins that travel through the bloodstream and into the brain, where they play pivotal roles in the mechanisms of our highest thought processes.

John Ratey

#12. physical activity counts as novel experience, at least as far as the brain is concerned.

John J. Ratey

#13. The mental and physical diseases we face in old age are tied together through the cardiovascular system and metabolic system. A

John J. Ratey

#14. Even 10 minutes of activity changes your brain.

John Ratey

#15. The amount of data in the world is doubling every few years, but our attention system, like the rest of the brain, was built to make sense of the surrounding environment as it existed ten thousand years ago.

John J. Ratey

#16. like every other aspect of our psychology, motivation is biological.

John J. Ratey

#17. After a stressful event, we often crave comfort food. Our body is calling for more glucose and simple carbohydrates and fat... And in modern life, people tend to have fewer friends and less support, because there's no tribe. Being alone is not good for the brain.

John J. Ratey

#18. Exercise is the single best thing you can do for your brain in terms of mood, memory, and learning.

John Ratey

#19. Hippocrates, who recommended that all people in a bad mood should go for a walk - and if it did not improve, walk again.

John J. Ratey

#20. If you had half an hour of exercise this morning, you're in the right frame of mind to sit still and focus on this paragraph, and your brain is far more equipped to remember it.

John Ratey

#21. exercise is as effective as certain medications for treating anxiety and depression.

John J. Ratey

#22. In the context of stress, the great paradox of the modern age may be that there is not more hardship, just more news - and too much of it. The 24/7 streaming torrent of tragedy and demands flashing at us from an array of digital displays keeps the amygdala flying.

John J. Ratey

#23. In Britain, doctors now use exercise as a first-line treatment for depression, but it's vastly underutilized in the United States,

John J. Ratey

#24. we sometimes lose sight of the fact that the mind, brain, and body all influence one another. In addition to feeling good when you exercise, you feel good about yourself,

John J. Ratey

#25. The way you choose to cope with stress can change not only how you feel, but also how it transforms the brain. If you react passively or if there is simply no way out, stress can become damaging.

John J. Ratey

#26. Exercise is really for the brain, not the body. It affects mood, vitality, alertness, and feelings of well-being.

John Ratey

#27. From an evolutionary perspective, exercise tricks the brain into trying to maintain itself for survival despite the hormonal cues that it is aging.

John J. Ratey

#28. This pattern of balancing between comfort and exploration of the unknown is how we build our brains,

John J. Ratey

#29. Over time, regular exercise also increases the efficiency of the cardiovascular system, lowering blood pressure.

John J. Ratey

#30. Getting older is unavoidable, but falling apart is not.

John J. Ratey

#31. about the biology of stress and recovery, stress seems to have an effect on the brain similar to that of vaccines on the immune system. In limited doses, it causes brain cells to overcompensate and thus gird themselves against future demands. Neuroscientists call this phenomenon stress inoculation.

John J. Ratey

#32. What makes aerobic exercise so powerful is that it's our evolutionary method of generating that spark. It lights a fire on every level of your brain, from stoking up the neurons' metabolic furnaces to forging the very structures that transmit information from one synapse to the next.

John J. Ratey

#33. One of the first symptoms of depression, even before your mood drops to new lows, is sleep disturbance. Either you can't get up or you can't get to sleep or both.

John J. Ratey

#34. Exercise is not an instant cure, but you need to get your brain working again, and if you move your body your brain won't have any choice.

John J. Ratey

#35. By showing that exercise sparks the master molecule of the learning process, Cotman nailed down a direct biological connection between movement and cognitive function.

John J. Ratey

#36. Students would be assessed on effort rather than skill. You didn't have to be a natural athlete to do well in gym.

John J. Ratey

#37. What it means is that you have the power to change your brain. All you have to do is lace up your running shoes.

John J. Ratey

#38. Chronic stress is linked to some of our most deadly diseases.

John J. Ratey

#39. Exercise is the single most powerful tool you have to optimize your brain function ... exercise has a profound impact on cognitive abilities and mental health. It is simply one of the best treatments we have for most psychiatric problems.

John Ratey