Exorcise Your Stress!

Feeling stressed? Exorcise it with some exercise!

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We have known for a long time that physical activity reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. The biggest reason why is that exercise improves the various risk factors that lead to CV disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and inflammation. However, those mechanisms only account for roughly 60% of physical activity’s overall CVD benefit. Therefore, something else must account for the other 40% of cardiovascular benefit. 

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We also know that exercise reduces the incidence and symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. But the question of how exercise leads to these benefits has not been clear.

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Recently published research has led to interesting insights into this crucial question.

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The researchers of this recent study investigated the effects of exercise on the neural networks in the brain that are known to be responsible for depression, anxiety and stress. In the brain, the amygdala is responsible for the detection of potential threats, and therefore is heavily involved in anxiety, depression and stress. On the other hand, cortical regions (including an area called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex) inhibit and regulate the amygdala and control those stress responses. Using advanced brain imaging techniques, stress-related neural activity in these different areas can actually be measured and quantified. Imbalances in the ratio of activity of these structures are associated with anxiety, PTSD and depression. 

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In this recent study, researchers performed this advanced brain imaging on an 800 patient subset of 50,000 research subjects in the Massachusetts General Hospital BioBank study. Individuals who achieved levels of physical activity that are recommended by guidelines (>150 minutes/week of moderate-intensity exercise) had lower activation of the amygdala (the “stress area” of the brain). They also saw that individuals with chronically heightened amygdalar activity (those with chronic anxiety and/or depression) had greater cardiovascular benefits from exercise. So people with pre-existing depression received more heart benefit from physical activity (greater reductions in 10-year cardiovascular event risk) than those without depression. In fact, the event risk reduction attained by achieving the 150 minutes/week guideline was approximately twice as great in those with depression compared to those without. And while patients without a history of depression or anxiety didn’t get much additional benefit by increasing from moderate levels of exercise to high levels, people with depression continued to have significant benefit, even up to the highest levels.

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This study demonstrated that physical activity is associated with significant reductions in stress-related patterns of brain activity and that the impact on these patterns explains at least part of physical activity’s overall cardiovascular benefit. Moreover, these researchers observed that, compared to individuals without depression, those with preexisting depression actually derived more benefit from exercise in general and greater benefit at higher levels of activity. 

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Levels of stress and anxiety are sky-rocketing in today’s world, and there doesn’t always seem like there’s anything we can do about it. 

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Now we have proof that we can indeed do something, and that it is entirely in our power to lower the stress and anxiety we feel. All it takes is to get out and exercise. 

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At Wisconsin Cardiology Associates, we counsel our patients to aim for 30 mins of moderate intensity 5-7 days/week. Can’t do that right away? No problem. Start with even just 5 minutes a day of something. We know for a fact that it will improve your physical health AND your mental health.

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Reference:

Zureigat H et al. J Am Coll Cardiol 83(16):1543-53

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