Mental Workout

With the change, Lucy found herself struggling to look after her family and get all the housework done, often crawling into bed after midnight. In the morning, she would wake feeling tired, irritable and argumentative. She would regularly skip meals but consume more junk food and started to put on weight as a result. Social outings and their annual end-of-year holiday were also cancelled due to the financial pressure.

After a few months, Lucy came to see me with symptoms of depression and anxiety. Over the next nine months, she partially responded to a number of antidepressants and her husband found work again. How-ever Lucy never felt the same and still struggled with her sleep, energy and mood. Her concentration and memory were also impaired, leading to a lot of frustration, with thoughts that she was perhaps losing her mind.

Things worsened the next year when her father, who was in his sixties, had a heart attack, which resulted in a prolonged hospital admission. Concerned about her own health, Lucy consulted her GP, who after an examination and investigations, told Lucy her weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels were all elevated, putting her at increased risk for a heart attack. Lucy decided to immediately start on an exercise program, even signing up for a personal training session once a week.

Soon, Lucy’s weight began to reduce and her blood pressure lowered. But even more noticeable were the improvements in her sleep at night and how refreshed and energised she was at waking. She noticed her anxiety and irritability slowly reduced, her mood significantly improved, and she could think more clearly and remember things better. Over the next few years, Lucy kept up her exercise program and told me she felt better than she could remember. We managed to reduce and then stop her antidepressant medications and she now only sees me once a year for a check-up.

The physical health benefits of exercise are very well known and documented. They include:

However, what is now being increasingly understood are the psychological benefits of exercise. To date, there are more than 200 published scientific articles confirming beneficial effects such as:

Evidence is also mounting that shows how regular aerobic exercise both prevents and assists in the treatment of mental conditions such as depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, drug addictions, bipolar disorders, psychotic disorders, attention deficit disorders and Alzheimer’s dementia. There are several reasons for this:

Neurotrophic effects

Aerobic exercise promotes adult neurogenesis by increasing the production of neurotrophic factors, compounds which promote the growth or survival of neurons that:

Structural growth

The various functions of the brain structures that show exercise-induced increase in grey matter volume include those:

Psychological stress and cortisol

Psychological stress induces the release of cortisol, and prolonged exposure to high levels of it causes impairments in cognitive control and has neurotoxic effects in the human brain. 

Aerobic exercise stimulates cortisol secretion in an intensity-dependent manner. This means aerobic exercise increases physical fitness and reduces the biological response to the psychological effects of cortisol release and increased heart rate. 

Euphoria

Continuous exercise can produce short-term euphoria, an affective state associated with feelings of profound contentment, elation and wellbeing, which is colloquially known as a “runner’s high.” 

Current medical reviews indicate that several endogenous euphoriants cross the blood brain barrier to act in the central nervous system, creating these feelings of euphoria. These include:

So as the saying goes, “If you don’t make time for exercise now, you’ll have to make time for being sick later.” 

It’s an adage that doesn’t simply apply to your physical health, but your mental wellbeing as well.