Research Wednesdays! 📰
Exercise and Mental Health
There has been a lot of research on exercise and its relationship to mental health. Exercise causes many physiological changes in the body which result in an improvement in mood, self-esteem, and lower stress and anxiety levels.
Exercise increases endorphin levels, mitochondria function, and attenuate to a response to stress and anxiety. Endorphins are chemicals produced by the body to relieve stress and pain. Mitochondria play a role in neurons firing within the brain and has been thought that decreased mitochondria in the brain is related to and inability to response to stress. Exercise has been shown to reduce inflammation throughout the body which can contribute to better health and mental health outcomes.
In addition to these physiological changes occurring in the body during exercise, exercise can include a distraction from depression and anxiety and improve self-efficacy.
Article found in Maturitas, Science Direct
Exercise and mental health
Kathleen Mikkelsena, Lily Stojanovskaa, Momir Polenakovicb, Marijan Bosevskic, Vasso Apostolopoulosa,⁎
a Centre for Chronic Disease, College of Health and Biomedicine, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia b Macedonian Academy of Science and Arts, Skopje, Macedonia
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