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It’s proven, exercise really does make you smarter.

As college students, we’ve all heard those nagging requests from our parents, especially when finals roll around in December and May.

“Stop studying so hard. Maybe you’d feel better if you went to the gym or went for a run? When was the last time you did that? Exercise will help you retain the information you’re studying.”

Our response: “Shut up! I only have so much time to cram!”

Well, once again, mom and dad were right.

According to an article on the New York Times’ Well blog, recent studies have shown that regular exercise is beneficial for the brain and can speed up the process of neurogenesis, the creation of new stem cells in the brain.

Though it has long been known that the increase in blood flow to the brain during exercise is beneficial to the human body, these studies present the benefits at a whole new level, implying that exercise can actually change the brain and aid in healthy growth of new cells.

The studies mentioned in this blog, which are currently being conducted separately at both the Salk Institute in San Diego and Northwestern University in Chicago, have shown that the thinking abilities of lab rodents increased exponentially when the animals were allowed to run on wheels frequently.

According to Dr. Fred Gage at the Salk Institute, these highly active mice underwent neurogenesis at a faster rate than the sedentary mice.

In addition, Dr. Jack Kessler at Northwestern has discovered that exercise can counteract the effects of bone-morphogenetic protein (BMP), which has been known to cause inactivity in brain cells as humans get older.

According to Kessler’s study, the “mice given access to running wheels had about 50 percent less BMP-related brain activity within a week.” This led to an increase in Noggin, a protein in the brain that fights against the effects of BMP. More exercise and higher dosages of Noggin created significantly more intelligent mice.

If the effects of exercise on humans are anywhere near the effects on mice, the findings could be especially critical to college students. Though many students believe high-stress weeks should be spent cramming in the library, finding time to exercise could be the trick to increasing brainpower and academic performance.

Other studies have shown that exercise can decrease anxiety, another common symptom of the stressed out college student.

Any way you put it, exercise seems to have nothing but positive effects on the human brain.

Though further analysis on this topic will undoubtedly be expanded on in the future, we can certainly gain one solid conclusion from these studies: step away from the coffee (or quit it with the “Facebook study breaks”) and hit the gym.