Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) causes great difficulty in focusing on day-to-day tasks, and appears to be an unsolved problem. However, Andrea Robinson, Michael Hopkins, and David Bucci recently released research suggesting that there is a cure that is simple, widely accessible, and completely free: exercise.

The group of scientists ran tests using spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), a breed widely accepted as being comparable to humans with ADHD. These rats display hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive behavior, as well as impaired short term memory.

The experiment consisted of three groups of young rats: freely exercising SHRs, non-exercising SHRs, and a control group of WKY rats – a close genetic relative. The exercising SHRs were given a stationary wheel to run on. These rats chose to run about 3.1 kilometers per day for three weeks.

The researchers ran several cognitive tests on the rats, the most notable of which regarded the difference in attention between the test groups. On the first day of experimenting, the rats were put in a cage and learned to retrieve food from a food cup in a given time limit. On the second day, the rats were again given food in their time limit; however this time the researchers also presented the rats with twelve completely unrelated beams of light, meant as distracters. The scientists then counted how many times each group of rats reared (stood on their hind legs as a response to the distraction) during its time in the cage.

After tabulating all of the numbers, the research group found that the non exercising SHRs significantly reared more than the exercising SHRs, which reared about as many time as the WKYs. So what does all of this rat-jargon actually mean?

It means that when the rats with attention deficits exercised, their focus became as strong as the rats without any disorders. It is to be noted that the key to this study is that the rats were young, and their brains malleable. Animal brains have maximum plasticity in their youth.

So what does this study tell us about humans? This result has resounding implications among humans, suggesting that if a teenager diagnosed with ADHD exercises regularly, then he/she may be able to minimize the effects of ADHD.