Credit: blog.smu.edu/research/ |
Moderate
exercise may help people cope with anxiety and stress for an extended period of
time post-workout, according to a study by kinesiology researchers in the
University of Maryland School of Public Health published in the journal
Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.
"While
it is well-known that exercise improves mood, among other benefits, not as much
is known about the potency of exercise's impact on emotional state and whether
these positive effects endure when we're faced with everyday stressors once we
leave the gym," explains J. Carson Smith, assistant professor in the
Department of Kinesiology.
Helping YOU to better endure life's
daily anxieties and stressors
"We
found that exercise helps to buffer the effects of emotional exposure. If you
exercise, you'll not only reduce your anxiety, but you'll be better able to
maintain that reduced anxiety when confronted with emotional events."
Smith,
whose research explores how exercise and physical activity affect brain
function, aging and mental health, compared how moderate intensity cycling
versus a period of quiet rest (both for 30 minutes) affected anxiety levels in
a group of healthy college students. He assessed their anxiety state before the
period of activity (or rest), shortly afterward (15 minutes after) and finally
after exposing them to a variety of highly arousing pleasant and unpleasant
photographs, as well as neutral images. At each point, study participants
answered 20 questions from the State-Trait Anxiety inventory, which is designed
to assess different symptoms of anxiety. All participants were put through both
the exercise and the rest states (on different days) and tested for anxiety
levels pre-exercise, post-exercise, and post-picture viewing.
Smith
found that exercise and quiet rest were equally effective at reducing anxiety
levels initially. However, once they were emotionally stimulated (by being
shown 90 photographs from the International Affective Picture System, a
database of photographs used in emotion research) for ~20 minutes, the anxiety
levels of those who had simply rested went back up to their initial levels,
whereas those who had exercised maintained their reduced anxiety levels.
"The
set of photographic stimuli we used from the IAPS database was designed to
simulate the range of emotional events you might experience in daily
life," Smith explains. "They represent pleasant emotional events,
neutral events and unpleasant events or stimuli. These vary from pictures of
babies, families, puppies and appetizing food items, to very neutral things like
plates, cups, furniture and city landscapes, to very unpleasant images of
violence, mutilations and other gruesome things."
The
study findings suggest the anxiolytic effects of acute exercise may be
resistant to the potentially detrimental effects on mood after exposure to
arousing emotional stimuli.
###
The
above story is based on the September 13, 2012 news release by University of
Maryland..
The
research is published online ahead of print on Aug. 14, 2012 in the journal
Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise:
Smith
JC. Effects of Emotional Exposure on
State Anxiety after Acute Exercise.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012 Aug 14.
Read
the paper online HERE
Prof.
Smith plans to explore if exercise could have the same persistent beneficial
effect in patients who regularly experience anxiety and depression symptoms. In
collaboration with the new Maryland Neuroimaging Center, he is also exploring
the addition of functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to measure
brain activity during the period of exposure to emotionally stimulating images
to see how exercise may alter the brain's emotion-related neural networks.
Smith
also investigates the role of exercise in preventing cognitive decline in older
adults. His research has shown that physical activity promotes changes in the
brain that may protect those at high risk for Alzheimer's disease.
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