Exercise Your Way To A Better Brain

By Blake Alec Miranda, Clinical Research Coordinator, YASSALAB Mood disorders like depression, anxiety and chronic stress can cripple your daily life, and spell disaster for your health. You or one of your family or friends may be directly affected, like one in five people in the USA, about 20% of the US’ entire population will be diagnosed with a mood disorder over the course of their lives, according to surveys by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Many different approaches can help you lead a happier, healthier life — even though these disorders are serious and potentially life-threatening. Cognitive-behavioral therapies with a counsellor plus medication have been standard. A new form of treatment with fewer side-effects which works immediately has delivered promising results recently, though. Exercise has been shown to reduce the effects of depression and anxiety and protect against cognitive decline. It can even improve your ability to handle high-stress events, such as life transitions, physical injury and workplace stress. First, we need to understand what we’re dealing with when we talk about mood and exercise. The neuroscience of physical fitness is an exciting, rapidly developing research topic that is set to change the way we treat mood disorders. What do you do when your body is unhealthy? You might take medicine, go to physical therapy, and try any and all remedies to alleviate the pain, depending on the circumstance. Eventually, you will feel better, stop treatment, and go about your life until the next time you’re feeling ill. It’s a simple story, and one that you’re all too familiar with if you’ve ever been to the doctor for any reason at all. But how about when your brain is “unhealthy”? When we’re depressed, anxious or chronically stressed, especially when pharmaceutical interventions can come with a multitude […]

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