To make things worse, prescription medications for these mood disorders do not guarantee a return to a balanced mood. In fact, many of these drugs come with dangerous side effects, such as weight gain, suicide ideation and more. Neurologist have discovered that Moderate Exercise—such as practicing Taekwondo 3-4 times weekly— Increases Hippocampal Volume and Improves Memory in older adults...as old as 80! Recent research has discovered that the size of our hippocampus correlates with our mood. In the largest international study to compare brain volumes of people with major depression to those of healthy people found that those suffering from mood disorders—bipolar, depression, etc—tend to have a significantly smaller hippocampus. The adult student who practices Taekwondo diligently three times a week, will notice a reduction of depression rapidly. kiffmann taekwondo utilizes—within our syllabus—high Intensity interval Training, which has been proven to be exponentially effective for improving cognitive, emotional and mental functioning of our neurological system.