Learn how regular exercise can promote your mental health, reduce stress, and improve your mood.
In this era of “metabolic syndrome” and obesity epidemics, lifestyle changes could be a low-cost strategy to enhance health and quality of life. Exercise Can Improve Mental Health
Lifestyle changes are especially important for people suffering from major mental illnesses. Many of these people are at high risk for chronic diseases caused by sedentary behaviour and prescription side effects, such as diabetes, hyperlipidaemia, and cardiovascular disease. Exercise is an important part of making lifestyle changes. Patients and mental health experts alike do not fully understand or appreciate the value of exercise. Exercise appears to be an underappreciated strategy in mental health care.
Aerobic exercises like jogging, swimming, cycling, walking, gardening, and dancing have been demonstrated to reduce anxiety and depression. These mood improvements are thought to be mediated by an increase in blood circulation to the brain generated by exercise, as well as an effect on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and, as a result, the physiologic response to stress. This physiological influence is most likely mediated by the HPA axis’s communication with several brain regions, including the limbic system, which controls motivation and mood; the amygdala, which produces fear in response to stress; and the hippocampus, which is involved in memory formation as well as mood and motivation.
Other ideas hypothesized to explain the positive effects of physical activity on mental health include distraction, self-efficacy, and social engagement. While formal group programs can be beneficial for people suffering from significant mental illnesses, lifestyle adjustments that
emphasize the accumulation and increase of moderate-intensity movement throughout the day may be the most appropriate alternative for the majority of patients. Interestingly, adherence to physical activity programs in mental patients appears to be similar to that in the general population.
Exercise promotes mental health by lowering anxiety, depression, and bad mood, as well as increasing self-esteem and cognitive performance. Exercise has also been shown to help with symptoms including low self-esteem and social withdrawal. Exercise is especially crucial in schizophrenia patients since they are already predisposed to obesity, as well as the increased risk of weight gain associated with antipsychotic medication, particularly atypical antipsychotics. Patients with schizophrenia who completed a three-month physical conditioning program reported improved weight control, increased fitness, exercise tolerance, lower blood pressure levels, higher perceived energy levels, and increased upper body and hand grip strength levels. These health advantages can be obtained with thirty minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, three days a week. Furthermore, these 30 minutes do not have to be continuous; three 10-minute walks are seen to be as beneficial as a single 30-minute stroll.
The following are some of the health benefits of regular exercise that every mental health professional should emphasize and promote with their patients:
- Benefits of improved sleep
- Stress alleviation
- Improved attitude
- vitality, and stamina.
- Reduced weariness can improve mental alertness.
- Weight decrease
- Reduced cholesterol and increased cardiovascular fitness
Mental health service providers can thereby deliver effective Evidence-based physical activity therapies to people suffering from significant mental illnesses. More research should be conducted to better understand the impact of integrating such therapies with established mental health treatments such as psychopharmacology and psychotherapy.
