
How Exercise Can Calm Anxiety - gruseom
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/03/how-exercise-can-calm-anxiety/?ref=health&_r=0
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ajtaylor
I'm more of a cyclist than a runner, but my limited experience has been that
when I consistently cycle longer distances each week (100km+) I feel better,
my brain is clearer and I sleep longer and more soundly at night. Historically
I've been a night owl, but during the times when I was consistently riding I
could hardly stay awake past 10pm.

Cycling, running, rowing, whatever - just get out there and do it. As the
article noted, exercise is not only good for the body but the brain as well.

~~~
epa
If we use our energy and break down our muscles during the day, our body will
want to sleep and recover... this is GENIUS. Im starting a startup.

~~~
chime
I know you were trying to be sarcastic but being physically tired is not the
same as being mentally tired. During different periods of my life, I've had
difficulty sleeping before midnight regardless of the physical activities I
engaged in during the day. I've run marathons, trained for ultras, swam mile+,
kayaked for 8 hours and yet I've had problems sleeping the very same night. In
fact, sometimes you can be too tired to sleep. Other times, I can be relaxed,
barely walk a thousand feet during the day and still need to fall asleep
within 12-14 hours of waking up.

~~~
mtdewcmu
I don't think there is actually a causal link between exercise and anxiety
reduction. All of the self reports can be explained by the placebo effect. And
there is a strong bias toward believing in a causal link that is all-
pervasive. When regular people experience anxiety reduction in conjunction
with exercise, the belief in exercise as the cause is unquestioned, and
researchers like these in the article need never fear that their
interpretation will be scrutinized. Nobody has a vested interest in opposing
exercise. Everyone knows it's just plain good for you.

What did this study prove? The assertion is that mice that are locked in cages
so they forcibly can't do what they would normally be doing make good
representatives for people that are not exercising, for any reason, including
personal preference. Do the researchers actually find that convincing? No,
apparently not:

>> Of course, as we all know, mice are not men or women. But, Dr. Gould says,
other studies “show that physical exercise reduces anxiety in humans,”
suggesting that similar remodeling takes place in the brains of people who
work out.

In other words, this study didn't really need to prove anything, anyway,
because it's already known from "other studies."

If you were going to design the definitive study to answer the question of
whether exercise relieves anxiety, how would you control for the placebo
effect? You can make sugar pills that are, plausibly, convincing enough to
separate drug effect from placebo. But how do you make a placebo for exercise?
Exercise itself would seem like the perfect placebo. If a research study was
able to motivate a group of sedentary, depressed subjects to start regular
exercise, it would seem to make it very hard to argue that those subjects
didn't believe they were genuinely doing something. A rigorous, double-blind,
controlled study of exercise sounds all but fundamentally impossible to do.

What about an observational study? How do you take two people, one who
exercises regularly, and one who is sedentary, and claim that they are
otherwise perfectly matched?

Why are scientists so sure it's been proven? Nature abhors a vacuum. It seems
like the less testable something is, the more certain people are of it.

~~~
einsteinx2
Do you ever exercise? Or maybe more pertinently, do you have any anxiety
problems?

I do on both counts, and what you're saying is laughable. It would be like
telling me that all the self reports that alcohol causes drunkenness are just
placebo.

It's such an obvious effect, both immediately following a workout, as well as
over time (months that I work out vs. months that I don't) that it could never
be confused with a placebo effect. Hence studies like this that attempt to
determine /why/ it happens, vs /that/ it happens.

~~~
mtdewcmu
How would you tell the difference whether exercise reduced your anxiety, or
the fact that you were exercising was a sign that your mental health was
better? I definitely feel more like exercising when I'm not anxious or
depressed. Almost nobody is going to bother with exercise if they feel
hopeless.

Besides, anxiety is not like cancer, where the tumor is either there or not.
There are probably biological inputs, but psychology is obviously important.
If you can get someone to believe they are not anxious, then they're not
anxious. So, arguably, a placebo effect is the only known cure.

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joel_perl_prog
I'm a marathoner and ultramarathoner. My first running event was a half-
marathon in 2007. From there, one thing lead to another over the years, and
now the most recent event I ran was a 50 mile ultra.

What I can say from my personal subjective experience is that I feel good all
the time. No aches and pains. No trouble sleeping. Mentally quick and sharp.
Never sick. The list goes on.

I recommend running to anyone. Not necessarily becoming a marathoner, unless
you enjoy the challenge, the sport and the subculture of it, but running in
general, for fitness.

~~~
colmvp
_I recommend running to anyone._

Unless you have severe joint problems, in which I case I think non-impact
activities like swimming and flat cycling are a better alternatives.

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dbuxton
Can anyone actually point me to a study that provides significant evidence for
this? As a non-specialist with quite severe meniscal damage from an old rugby
injury, swimming has often been suggested to me, but I found it the very most
painful and upsetting activity of all. Whereas running (in Fivefingers, for
the last four years) has more or less brought my knees back to normal.

I'm not challenging that for some value of "severe" this is true, and I'm
sceptical that my own experience represents anything useful at all for anyone
else. But my question is: is there actual clinical evidence that this is the
case, or is this actually just an old wives' tale?

There are plenty of things online that suggest the opposite[1] - but can
anyone who actually knows what they are talking about chime in with the state
of the art?

[1]: [http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-treatment/joint-
myth?page...](http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-treatment/joint-
myth?page=single)

~~~
joel_perl_prog
This isn't exactly what you're asking about (I think you're challenging
swimming as a go-to activity for someone too injured or otherwise unable to
run) -- but there is a related myth, which is that running ruins your knees.
Studies have shown evidence the opposite is true: that running strengthens and
thickens bone. I mention this by way of saying that, with the amount of myth
and half-truth out there as relates to running and the impact on the body, I'm
never surprised by what people believe anymore.

~~~
tobtoh
I was always under the understanding that running (potentially) ruins your
knees by damaging your cartilage - bone thickness or density isn't the issue.
That's why swimming is often recommended because there is no impact on your
cartilage.

~~~
lostlogin
I'm running cartilage mapping MRI sequences on knees today - and while its
hardly scientific, I would have to agree. The big runners I scan have some
pretty munted hips and knees. So very messed up that I can't find any decent
cartilage to use as baseline normal for the scanner.

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noarchy
This is precisely why I'm a cyclist and not a runner. I like to think that I
gave running a sincere effort, but the little aches and pains just bothered me
constantly. Maybe I had poor form, or maybe my body just isn't built for it, I
don't know. By contrast, after tens of thousands of kms on the bike, all I
ever get are sore muscles after a hard effort.

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gpmcadam
As someone whose anxiety is triggered by physical activity, this is a bit of a
conundrum for me at the moment.

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zzzeek
I was having this issue earlier this year after about ten years of not enough
exercise (with some years excepted). A couple of years ago, a routine physical
showed a small blip on my EKG, "nothing to worry about, but here, go see this
cardiologist". A (very stressful) stress test and a holter monitor test later,
the doc didn't seem to think my EKG issue (a right bundle branch block) was
much to worry about, but "you really need to get your fast heartrate down, if
it's not a medical issue then you need serious psychological help", so thanks
doc! It's known as "white coat syndrome", medical settings scare the crap out
of me.

Anyway, for the next couple of years I found exercise in some ways to be
stress-relieving as it always did, but the shadow of "what if your heart is
bad" was really messing it up. I developed palpitations which persisted for
about a year, scaring the crap out of me regularly.

The two things that have at least for now ameliorated it are: 1. I went on
antidepressants (lexapro), this is not the first time I've been on them and
despite HNsers who think they're bunk, it's pretty obvious they have a
positive effect, and 2. I got a personal trainer at the gym. Both have
downsides: one is side effects, the other is PTs are incredibly expensive. But
the advantage of the PT is, she pushes me _so_ _hard_ that you get to
experience levels of cardio workout that are way beyond what I normally would
do on my own. So between just experiencing ridiculous, prolonged cardio
workouts as well as the heart strengthening effect they have, my resting
heartrate is down to 60 at night and I don't generally have palpitations. I
wouldn't say the problem is solved, but working out very intensely with
someone there who will most likely call 911 if you keel over has been helpful.

~~~
sneak
> "you really need to get your fast heartrate down, if it's not a medical
> issue then you need serious psychological help",

... then ...

> 1\. I went on antidepressants (lexapro), this is not the first time I've
> been on them and despite HNsers who think they're bunk, it's pretty obvious
> they have a positive effect

Unwarranted anxiety is a common symptom of depression. The doctor was right,
you needed psych treatment.

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EnderMB
I suffer quite badly from anxiety. I consider myself a good developer, but
sometimes the stress of the job will make me nervous and I'll make silly
mistakes. I'm used to it enough now to make myself take a step back and relax
before continuing, but it really affected my confidence a few years ago.
Something as simple as having someone watch me while I code would make me feel
to pieces.

Although I don't exercise as much as I'd like to, I still go to the gym three
times a week and get in a ton of cardio. Nowadays, I tend to go to the gym
after work and I find myself craving it after a hard day. It's almost as if
the fitness benefits are a secondary goal for me, as the sole reason I do it
is to cheer myself up and to relieve the stress of work. I can have a terrible
day, and I know that if I run 10k and do a ton of cardio I'll head back home
happy and relaxed.

Ideally, later on in my career, I'll land a job with an on-site gym so I can
get my exercising done during my lunch break.

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mathattack
Interesting. This goes hand in hand with the saying that "When you are too
stressed to have time to exercise, you need it the most." In this case, the
science seems to back up the heuristic.

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pacomerh
Remember that 7-min routine someone posted a few weeks back?
([http://goo.gl/vwmYH](http://goo.gl/vwmYH)). I've doing that every single day
and I feel much better everyday, with more energy. Might sound silly for some
that a routine that short would do anything, but it actually made a change.
Anxiety is something that can block you from finishing projects and doing
simple stuff, I totally agree with this article.

~~~
jacques_chester
FWIW, it's a circuit meant to be done 3 times -- 21 minutes. Probably closer
to 25 minutes with unplanned breaks.

~~~
pacomerh
Imagine what 3 times can do if I already see change with one set per day. I'm
gonna start doing two.

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cdooh
Running: not just good for the body but good for the mind too. Makes me glad I
started running a couple of months ago

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marcosscriven
I definitely feel better after a run, but I thought/assumed it was down to
endorphins. In fact the reverse seems to be true (for me) - I get really antsy
if I haven't exercised.

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cr4zy
Interesting that GABA increases activity in young brains, but not brains flush
with young neurons.
[http://hilinkit.appspot.com/yhgjdr](http://hilinkit.appspot.com/yhgjdr)

~~~
dfc
Quoting and linking to wikipedia is too hard?

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vijucat
I think the word "exercise" is used a bit loosely in this context and not all
exercises are equal. What happened with me was that I tried strength training
while going through a brief, stressful period, and it shot up my cortisol
levels and/or caused adrenal fatigue in the worst kind of way : I could not
sleep at all and was pacing around the house like a rat in a cage. I suppose I
should have done running or cycling instead, which would have calmed me down.

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praveenhm
I started running few years back, but I couldn't run more than two miles, I
used to get pain in my ankle. I know this is due to my snicker shoe. So, I
bought 5-finger shoe, after that I can't stop running. Now I run around 6
miles, but I get bored beyond that, I think can do more than that.

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alexvr
Sorry, I couldn't resist:

"a portion of the brain known to be involved in thinking"

You don't say? ;P

~~~
pavs
Your whole brain is not involved in thinking process, it is possible to cut
off parts of your brain and it will not effect your thinking ability.

~~~
babby
Right. I believe the distinction is _conscious_ thinking. Most of ones caloric
consumption by the brain is from subconscious/passive processes, for
maintaining the body, motor skills, alertness etc.

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dschiptsov
Oh, boy, what a finding.) Guess why people are running long distances..))

To put it simple - running and swimming are all about better circulation and
"massage" for all internal organs.

