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To most of you reading
this is not news, but still many of us need a reminder of why we do what we
do. We sometimes need to be reminded that there is one therapy that helps
ward off addiction, depression, stress and even Alzheimer's, all the while keeping
you slim and feeling great?
That mental-health
"treatment" is as close as your own two feet -- exercise.
"Exercise improves
blood flow to the brain, it helps the body
detoxify, it puts you on a better cycle of physical behavior, and it leads to
decreased stress. It also improves thinking and mental function and decreases
your tendency toward addiction," said Dr. Marc Siegel, an internist at New York University
Medical Center
and an associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine in New York City.
With each new study,
experts are getting a better understanding of the intimate connection between
the health of the body
and that of the mind.
And exercise
-- the body's key
method of staying healthy -- appears to be crucial to mental health, too. For
example, "there's evidence that exercise is maybe the best non-pharmacological
antidepressant we have -- studies have shown that it works better than some
drugs. It's also a great anti-anxiety intervention," said James Maddux, a
professor of psychology at George Mason University
in Fairfax, Va., and an expert on the mind-body health connection.
Aerobic exercise such as
running or swimming can lead to a healthy release of the body's natural opiates,
neurochemicals called endorphins. These are natural stress-busters, Siegel
said, but exercise's impact on stress goes "way beyond endorphins."
"Exercise
is a ritualistic activity that redirects your energy," said Siegel, who is
also the author of a book on worry and stress called False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear.
"Stress is a build-up of inactivity, of over-thinking without
release," he said. "But exercise gives you a physical release that
diminishes that psychic frustration."
For many people, exercise also provides a valuable sense of control over their
physical health. "It's that sense of a loss of control that can lead to
stress," Siegel said. And physical activity -- especially when individuals
join sports clubs, teams or have workout partners -- also increases
socialization, which has been proven to boost mental and physical health and
increase lifespan.
Regular workouts may even help smokers beat
their addiction, researchers say.
For example, one study from Brown
University found that
women looking to quit smoking who engaged in a vigorous exercise program were
more than twice as likely to have stayed away from cigarettes for at least one
year, compared to women who simply took part in a smoking-cessation program
without exercise.
The Brown team believes that exercise may have helped smokers deal with the
stress of quitting. As an added bonus, the study also found that exercising
ex-smokers were able to stave off much of the weight gain typically associated
with quitting smoking.
A fit, active body may even help reduce
risks for Alzheimer's disease by improving cerebrovascular blood flow, experts
say.
"There's no question that exercise improves blood flow to the brain,"
Siegel explained. One recent U.S. study found that seniors who engaged in some
form of minimal exercise at least three days a week cut their risk of
developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia by as much as 30 percent to
40 percent.
So, the advice from experts: Get out there, and get active.
"Exercise is clearly a discipline or ritualistic activity that you can use
to break your cycle of worry and get on a path
toward better health," Siegel said.
SOURCES: Marc Siegel,
M.D., internist, New York University Medical
Center, and associate professor,
medicine, NYU School of Medicine, New York City, and author, False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear;
James Maddux, Ph.D., professor, psychology, George
Mason University,
Fairfax, Va.
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