The benefits of exercise on mental health.

The pleasure hormone

Before getting into the main topic let's talk about some neurotransmitters our body produces in order to keep us happy, motivated and make us feel good. The neurotransmitter which is responsible for pleasurable sensations is known as Dopamine our body produces dopamine which is later used by our nervous system to send messages or to communicate between nerve cells that's why dopamine is also called a chemical messenger. The main role of dopamine in our body is to make us feel the pleasure of something or anything.

The anti-depression hormone

The main role of serotonin is to stabilize our mood. Serotonin also helps us with quality sleep, hunger, eating, and digestion, etc. Serotonin is also called the Happiness hormone

Do or Die hormone

Norepinephrine or noradrenaline is basically responsible for the fight-or-flight response by increasing our body's heart rate.

It has been set up by various studies that working out can really impact the levels of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine

at the point when our body lacks these three neurotransmitters or chemicals, We become miserable, discouraged, or restless.

In one experiment conducted in 1999, James Blumenthal did the comparison of activity to the stimulant medicine "Zoloft". This experiment lasts for about four months preliminary. James concluded that 30 minutes of walk, three days a week was very compelling as upper Zoloft.

One more review in 2006 more than 19,000 Dutch families showed that activity can decrease despondency and can cause fewer mental issues

Exercise can reduce stress

Let's take a look at some of the really stressful scenarios: let's assume you're relaxing on the beach eating berries and drinking a fresh glass of pina colada and then you see a wild animal lets assume it's a tiger slowly coming in your direction. The first thing your nervous system will do is turn your fight or flight response switches on, the pituitary gland will produce an adrenocorticotropic hormone, another stress hormone called cortisol will be instantly released in your body causing your heart rate to shoot up, digestion of berries and refreshing pina colada will be turned off and all of a sudden you will start moving.

your body will exert a good amount of effort, but after a couple of minutes of running for your life you get to the safe place and your body will come to a resting state, then the processes your nervous system was doing a couple of minutes ago will be stoped, and your cortisol levels will start dropping down to normal levels.

So for better understanding let's call it the IF and THEN sequencing of our nervous system :

IF see the tiger, THEN shoot the cortisol up to the roof. After that, if we are out of danger THEN lower cortisol levels to the normal state. Unfortunately in most cases, our body activates the first part, but it doesn't activate the second part.

When I was in college my grandma always used tell me don't take too much stress or else I will get fat. We have always heard that taking too much stress can make you fat, and surprisingly it actually does make you fat

It has been shown in some research that cortisol can increase visceral fat, which can further become the reason for cardiovascular disease and metabolic issues but it just doesn't stop there even stress can also affect other factors other than just being fat.

Another research has shown that in Brain imaging people with high levels of cortisol degrade their brain tissue much faster than normal people.

But you can stop all that serious issues just by doing some exercise in the morning because it can decrease cortisol levels and keep them down for the rest of the day.

So that's it for today from my side. I will catch you in my next post.

Till then take care of yourself. See you in the next post

~Auri