How fitness helps mental health
At a time of exponential growth in metabolic syndrome and obesity, lifestyle changes could be a cost-effective way to improve health and quality of life.
Lifestyle changes may be particularly important for people with serious mental illnesses. Many of these people are at high risk for chronic diseases associated with sedentary lifestyles and medication side effects, including diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular disease.
An essential component of lifestyle change is exercise. Neither patients nor mental health professionals adequately understand or appreciate the importance of physical activity. There is evidence that exercise can be an often neglected intervention in mental health care.
Aerobic exercise, including jogging, swimming, cycling, walking, gardening, yoga, and dancing, is thought to reduce anxiety and depression.
It is thought that these Mood improvements are caused by exercise-induced increases in blood flow to the brain and by an influence on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and therefore on the physiological reactivity to stress.
This physiological influence is probably caused by the communication of the HPA axis with various Brain mediate regions including the limbic system, which controls motivation and mood; the amygdala, which produces fear in response to stress; and the hippocampus, which plays an important role in memory formation as well as mood and motivation.
Other hypotheses that have been proposed to explain the positive effects of physical activity on mental health include distraction, self-efficacy, and social interaction.
While structured group programs can be effective for individuals who have a serious mental illness, lifestyle changes based on accumulations and increases in moderate activity may be affected.
Interestingly, adherence to physical activity interventions in psychiatric patients appears to be comparable to that in the general population.
Improving mental health through exercise by avoiding anxiety, depression and everything else gives you a negative mood and the most important thing is self-esteem.
Studies have also proven that exercise relieves symptoms of psychological problems such as low self-esteem and social withdrawal.
Exercise is especially important for schizophrenics because these patients are already prone to excessive obesity and also because of the side effects of being overweight associated with antipsychotic treatment, especially with atypical antipsychotics.
Patients with schizophrenia who participated in a three-month fitness program demonstrated improvements in weight control and reported higher levels of fitness, exercise tolerance, reduced blood pressure, higher perceived energy levels, and higher levels of hand strength.
Thirty minutes of moderately intense exercise, such as Some activities, such as brisk walking three days a week, are enough to achieve these health benefits. Furthermore, these 30 minutes do not have to be continuous; It is believed that three 10-minute walks are as useful as one 30-minute walk.
The health benefits of regular exercise that every psychiatrist should highlight and emphasize to their patients include the following:
- Improved sleep
- Increased interest in sex
- Improved stamina
- Improved mood
- Increased energy and stamina
- Reduced fatigue can increase mental alertness
- Reduce cholesterol levels and improve heart health
This enables mental health providers to offer effective evidence-based physical activity interventions for people with serious mental illnesses important.
Further research should be conducted to understand the effects of combining such interventions with traditional mental health treatments, including psychopharmacology and psychotherapy.
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