Stress Exercise: Ah, if you could protect yourself from the toxic effects of stress! Well, you can do so through physical activity, according to a new study.
Stress Exercise: Be aware of the stressors that make you sick
In 2018, who is unaware of the harmful effects of stress on health, mood, and behavior? It can cause a headache, sleep problems, chest pain, anxiety, irritability, and depression, not to mention the abuse of food, medication, and alcohol, according to the Mayo Clinic. The World Health Organization (WHO) now sees work-related stress as “the epidemic of the twenty-first century“. Can you eliminate the stress of your life? Protect yourself from its devastating effects by moving.
Stress Exercise: Recent Study
A recent study, published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, examined how people in the good physical condition experienced stressful situations at work and the impact of it on their lives. The researchers assessed the fitness level of 200 Swedish employees. They also took measures related to cardiovascular risks: blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), triglycerides, cholesterol, and blood glucose.
Participants were then asked how much stress they felt at that time. Their responses confirmed the scientists’ suspicions: those who felt more stressed had higher cardiovascular risks at all levels and those who felt less stressed were in better physical shape. Researchers were even able to detect differences in stress among participants depending on whether their physical condition was good, average, or weak. Professor Markus Gerber of the University of Basel, Switzerland, where the study was conducted, believes that these data are significant. Why? Because we tend to do less exercise when we are more stressed, whereas we should do more. These results open the door to potential treatments for stress-related diseases.
The CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommends that we practice some forms of exercise, that is, move our bodies at least 2 hours or 2 hours per week. This goal is easily attainable by accumulating periods of physical activity of 10 minutes several times a week: walking by walking the dog, flexing the arms or squatting while watching TV, gardening, raking, shoveling snow, etc. Yoga is also a formidable exercise because it is doubly effective: it gets us into shape, and it relieves stress.
