What if one method of treatment could help protect against addiction, depression, stress and even Alzheimer disease, all the while keeping you slim and feeling wonderful?
That mental-health "treatment" is as close as your own two feet - exercise.
"Physical activity improves blood flow to the brain, it helps to detoxify the organizm, it puts you on a better cycle of physical behavior, and it reduces considerably the levels of stress. Moreover, it improves thinking and mental function and reduces your tendency toward addiction," explained Dr Marc Siegel, an internist at New York University Medical Centre and an associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine in New York City.
Physical activity is essential
With each new research, specialists are better understand the intimate association between the health of the body and the mind. And physical activity - the body’s crucial method of remaining healthy – turns up to be essential to mental health as well.
For instance, "there is evidence that physical activity is perhaps the best non-pharmacological antidepressant we have - research has proven that it works better than some medications. Moreover, it’s a great anti-anxiety intervention," claims James Maddux, a professor of psychology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and an expert on the mind-body health connection.
Aerobic exercise like running or swimming may result in a healthy release of the body’s natural opiates, neurochemicals known as endorphins. According to Siegel, these are natural stress-busters, but exercise’s influence on stress goes "way beyond endorphins."
Over thinking without release
"Exercise is a ritualistic activity redirecting your energy," said Siegel, who is the author of a book about anxiety and stress entitled False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear. "Stress is a build-up of inactivity, of over-thinking without release," he explained. "But physical activity gives you a physical release reducing that psychic frustration."
For many people, physical activity ensures also an important sense of control over their physical health. "It’s that sense of a loss of control that can result in stress," Siegel added. What’s more, physical activity - particularly when people join sports clubs, teams or have workout partners - also increases socialization, which has been proven to improve mental and physical health and increase lifespan.
Can help give up smoking cigarettes
According to scientists, regular workouts may even help smokers kick their addiction.
For instance, new research from Brown University discovered that women willing to give up smoking cigarettes who engaged in a dynamic exercise program were more than twice as probable to have stayed away from cigarettes for at least one year, in comparison with women who simply attended a smoking-cessation program without exercising.
The Brown team is convinced that physical activity may have helped smokers cope with the stress of quitting. As an additional bonus, the research also revealed that ex-smokers practicing sports were able to stave off much of the weight gain normally connected with giving up smoking.
Can protect from dementia
Specialists are sure that a healthy, active body may even help decrease risks for Alzheimer’s disease by improving cerebrovascular blood flow.
"There’s no question that physical activity improves blood flow to the brain," Siegel explained. The latest research conducted by American scientists discovered that seniors who engaged in some form of minimal exercise at least three days weekly reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer disease and other types of dementia by as much as 30 to 40 per cent.
Therefore, the specialists advice: Get out there, and get active.
"Physical activity is clearly a discipline or ritualistic activity that you can use I order to break your cycle of anxiety and get on a path toward better health," Siegel explained.
