It’s a Monday morning and your feeling even more sluggish that you usually do. You have two exams you just aren’t prepared to take, and you are stressed out. So, as overwhelmed students, we begin to stress, some begin to eat, and some begin to stop eating, but exercise never crosses anybody’s mind. Why?

Extensive research has been done on humans that suggest exercise could have benefits for one’s overall health and cognitive function, especially later in life.

According to the American Psychological Association, we know that there’s preliminary evidence suggests a possible link between exercise and brain chemicals associated with stress, anxiety, and depression.

After doing research, they found work in animals since the late 1980’s has proved exercise increases brain concentrations of norepinephrine in brain region’s that control the body’s response to stress. Additionally, they found information stating Psychologists deem exercise enhances the body’s ability to respond to stress, and biologically it forces the body’s psychological systems to communicate more than usual.

While I was writing this blog, I really wanted to find a study that showed the correlation between exercise and stress, how it really “increases brain concentrations” as, stated above.

Jennifer Thome and Dorothy L. Espelage did an observational study through a questionnaire amongst college students that evaluated the role of exercise as both a coping mechanism and as a health behavior in relation to eating pathology and other measures of psychological health in a nonclinical university population such as stress. Female and Male undergraduate (# Unknown) students completed the questionnaire and the results ended up being very different between males and females. For example, results showed exercise was relate to positive psychological health in males, where as exercise in a female was associated with both positive and negative psychological health. This study suggests that exercise might be differentially associated with mental health based on gender. Although the study was observational, and didn’t have a specific controlled group of participants, it had a positive outcome by allowing these students to see where exercise helped them and in what categories.

This study found exercise not only improves physical health but also decreases anxiety, stress, improves mood state, self-esteem, and body image, which are all important aspects when being a college student. Little is known about why the relationship between exercise and mental health/well-being exists. It also doesn’t have specific intensity, type, or duration of an exercise to give to students to manage daily stress. However, it is important as college students we cope with our stress, because it is fundamental to our physical and mental health. Additionally, this applies for years to come, as stress doesn’t stop, it has only just begun. As it becomes more to handle, it becomes almost a consequence not to deal with it by doing activities such as exercise. Stress is linked closely with poor sleeping habits, bad eating habits, and bad posture, which puts you at risk for diseases, as you get older. Stress reduction is a crucial part of life especially at a young age when we have time to figure out how to manage it.

According to The Journal of the American Medical Association, after conducting a randomized control trial of 134 patients (92 males and 42 female) aged 40-84 years with a stable ischemic heart disease, they found exercise and stress management training reduced emotional distress and improved markers of cardiovascular risk more than the usual medical care alone. Throughout the trial, they did routine medical care, usual care plus supervised aerobic exercise training for 35 minutes 3 times per week, and usual care plus weekly 1.5 hour stress management training for 16 weeks. The patients had lower BDI scores, and it reduced stress.

This study was interesting to me because it showed me there is a point to exercising, especially during the winter when all I want to do is sit around and watch Netflix all day. The patients in the study above were recruited through the newspaper, television, and radio advertisements so those tested may not have all had the same exact characteristics but they all had the disease. Again, this may not be 100% accurate, but the randomized-control trial definitely had good results. More studies done in the future would most definitely improve the results of exercise on stress management.

But until then, we must maintain our health and do what is needed to get rid of the stress which exercising, doing yoga, aerobics, but more than sitting around and watching Netflix, because as much as we convince ourselves that is the cure, it won’t work forever.