In case you wondered …

… Why Walking Helps Us Think — The New Yorker. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

What is it about walking, in particular, that makes it so amenable to thinking and writing? The answer begins with changes to our chemistry. When we go for a walk, the heart pumps faster, circulating more blood and oxygen not just to the muscles but to all the organs—including the brain. Many experiments have shown that after or during exercise, even very mild exertion, people perform better on tests ofmemory and attention. Walking on a regular basis also promotes new connections between brain cells, staves off the usual withering of brain tissue that comes with age, increases the volume of the hippocampus (a brain region crucial for memory), and elevates levels of molecules that both stimulate the growth of new neurons and transmit messagesbetween them.

For nearly 14 years, I walked to and from work every day (4.4 miles round trip). That comes to about 15,000 miles. But I walk everywhere and have all my life. So I've accumulated quite a bit of mileage.