#shawleveryday2019 Day 62

The relationship between exercise and mental health is complex. It's pretty clear that exercise does boost your mood short-term thanks to endorphins which help relieve pain and make you feel good, but exercise is also effective longer-term in the treatment of mental illness.

In one study, sedentary adults with major depressive disorder were assigned to one of four groups: supervised exercise, home-based exercise, antidepressant therapy or a placebo pill. After four months of treatment, patients in the exercise and antidepressant groups had higher rates of remission than did the patients on the placebo. Exercise, they concluded, was generally comparable to antidepressants for patients with major depressive disorder.  There have also been studies that show exercise as a beneficial treatment for anxiety and schizophrenia.

There are various ways that exercise affects your mental health:

• It improves the creation of neurons in your hippocampus, which is an area of your brain involved with memory, emotional regulation, and learning
• Exercise can improve your self-esteem, which is associated with better mental health
• It can help your sleep, which is also know to affect mental health
• It offers an opportunity to socialize and get social support
• Exercise can distract you from negative thoughts - I know this to be true with hockey because once you're on the ice, all you have time to think about is where the puck is and where you're positioned and whether or not you have both hands on your stick :)

Exercising for 45-60 minutes at least 3 times a week will show some improvement within 4 weeks, but should really continue for 10-12 weeks in order to have the best mental health benefit. It can be hard to get started, but even smaller amounts of exercise are beneficial as well.

Additional Resources:

• American Psychological Association - The exercise effect
• Psychology Today - How Your Mental Health Reaps the Benefits of Exercise
• Better Health, Victoria, Australia - Exercise and mental health

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