Stress and Anxiety

“Mental health awareness doesn’t mean fighting stress, anxiety, depression and other everyday mental health issues, rather it means consciously modulating the habits that intensify those issues. Once you are in control of your habits, instead of checking your habits, you would automatically be in a much better shape, both mentally and physically. ”

- Abhijit Naskar

Why We Feel the Way We Feel

Stress and anxiety affects your everyday life, from your habits and behaviors down to your physical capabilities. Stress causes the release of cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands that regulates the metabolic processes of the respiratory, cardiovascular, and circulatory system. This release of cortisol hinders optimal performance of the immune system, weakening the bodies responses to illness. Anxiety causes the release of adrenaline, also released by the adrenal glands, putting the body into a constant and sustained state of fight-or-flight. This leads to increased respiration, heart rate, sweating palms, dry mouth, and a debilitating feeling of dread.

Exercise has been proven to help improve your feelings of stress and anxiety, releasing hormones that directly hinder the adverse effects. The benefits provided by physical activity have been measured and discussed in numerous studies, and our goal here is to inform you of these findings.

Data from the American Psychology Association has concluded that as of the 2020-2021 school year, more than 60% of American university and college students met the criteria for at least one mental health problem. Research conducted by BMC Psychiatry in 2020 sought to uncover the relationship between university students' symptoms of mental illness and prescribed exercise treatments. They used the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL-25) as a tool to detect symptoms for anxiety and depression, and related pairs of participants with different exercise levels to find a correlation.

The research indicated that 67% of women and 46% of men reported not exercising regularly during the week. Those who did not had significantly higher HSCL-25 scores, which was indicative of higher levels of associated symptoms. It is theorized that exercise moderates the maintenance of mitochondrial functioning, and inactivity is linked with the development of mental illness. The introduction of physical activity in the participants' behavior wildly beneficial, with even just the slightest change from inactivity having detrimental effects on one's personal score.

The Use of Exercise as Medicine

Reducing Anxiety as a Product of Physical Activity

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America states that 40 million adults in the US suffer from generalized anxiety disorder (about 20% of the population). According to the American Psychology Association, the number of university and college students that have an anxiety disorder is 42% of the population. Anxiety disorders can range from specific phobias, to social anxieties, to generalized anxiety disorder. It is the 6th leading cause of disability in the world and it is usually seen in conjunction with other mental health disorders. Individuals with anxiety are at a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease and premature mortality.

Exercise has been shown to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and provide protective benefits between different populations. Research done in 2020 by Kandola and Stubbs indicated that failing to meet the recommended requirement of 150 minuets of moderate exercise and 75 minuets of intense exercise increases the chances of developing an anxiety disorder by 32%. Of course, those who meet this requirement do not experience these adversities, as exercise "exerts an influence on stress and the HPA axis, which could contribute toward its anxiolytic effects” (Kandola and Stubbs, 2020). These biological adaptations can further assist your body by providing long term protection against generalized stressors, helping you to recover from stress quicker and more efficiently.