How Exercise Can Reduce Anxiety, Stress

What some people don’t know about exercise is that, in addition to making you more fit and more self-confident, it can help you to feel less anxious and worried.

When you exercise intensively, chemicals called “endorphins” are released. Endorphins cause you to experience a feeling of well-being, elation or happiness. They are usually released when you do something you like, such as listening to your favorite song or eating your favorite food.

Over time, exercising on a regular basis can also lead to an improvement in mood and a reduction in feelings of stress or anxiety. Exercising can help you to “burn off” some of the excess anxiety you are feeling (along with excess calories).

An article describes a review of people who have anxiety issues and their level of physical activity. The researchers found that people who had higher levels of anxiety were more likely to have low activity levels. People with lower levels of anxiety, of course, were found to get more exercise than the other participants.

Because the research in question came from a review and not an experiment, the researchers were collecting and analyzing information without actively trying to influence how often the participants exercised. This means that the researchers can not conclusively determine the relationship between amount or frequency of exercise and level of anxiety.

More information about anxiety and the review mentioned earlier can be found in an article on the Dailyrx site.

If you want to read the article in its entirety, you can click on the link below for more information.

http://www.dailyrx.com/exercise-programs-led-reduction-anxiety-symptoms

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