Fast and simple way toStressWith a simple exercise
According to experts, stress is actually “the body’s natural reaction, including mental, emotional, and physical responses to changes.” Although stress is a widespread and global issue, everyone who has experienced stress feels it is something abnormal. In previous health and wellness sections,SelMagzMany solutions to reduce stress have been introduced, and below, a simple exercise will be suggested to help with stress relief.
If you’re stressed, go for a run
Running is very helpful for calming the mind. If you’re stressed and want to quickly get rid of this destructive stress, just dedicate a few minutes to a simple exercise—run for 20 minutes a day to eliminate stress.
Running boosts learning and memory
Running is a good way to maintain memory performance and learning ability during chronic stress. The ideal situation for improving learning and memory is to be free of stress and exercise regularly. It’s very good to know that going out and running can help fight the negative effects of stress on your brain.
Although we can never completely eliminate stress from our lives, it’s good to know that by exercising 20 minutes a day, we can enhance our cardiovascular health and prevent stress from developing in our minds.
There are reasons why stress can become very intense
“Our feeling of stress” has evolved over hundreds of years as a survival mechanism. However, today, most of the stress we experience is not related to survival; for example, job opportunities, long lines at stores, or weak internet connections cause stress, rapid heartbeat, sweating, shortness of breath, and muscle spasms.
Stress affects not only the body but also the mind. Think about the last time you feltanxietyor a specific stressful situation.
You probably remember its details vaguely. When stressed, our minds focus intensely on whatever is bothering us, which reduces our ability to perform activities like forming memories and critical thinking. In this state, “the brain changes its approach to prioritize survival over recording events and making memories.”
Fortunately, studies show that we can do certain activities to reduce the effects of stress on the brain. For more information, continue reading. There are many ways to achieve calmness, one of which is doing physical exercises andwalkingevery day.
Replacing stressful thoughts with running
Some people love running while others hate it, but a study found that nothing calms a stressed mind better than a good run. The study also concluded thatrunningsignificantly reduces the negative effects of chronic stress on the hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory). Exercise is an easy and affordable way to eliminate the negative impact of chronic stress on memory. By now, you probably understand why science says exercise is one of the best things you can do!
Impact on Brain Function
It is very important to understand how the hippocampus works before diving into this topic. The synapses between brain neurons (communication points) are constantly forming memories and recalling past experiences. This continuous strengthening process is called synaptic reinforcement. Long-term chronic stress weakens these synapses and their activity, disrupting the reconstruction process, which impairs memory function.
However, studies show that running at least 20 minutes a day during stressful times can prevent this. When we exercise while stressed, synaptic activity levels (LPT) do not decrease and remain stable.
How this experiment was conducted
Since mice and humans share high DNA similarity and their brains are very similar, mice are good models for human experiments. In this study, a group of lab mice walked on a treadmill for four weeks, averaging about 5 km per day, while another group had no treadmill access.
Half of the mice from each group were exposed daily to stress-inducing situations, like cold water swimming or walking on a raised platform. An hour after these stressful events, researchers performed brain scans to measure the activity of the LPT in these rodents.
Additionally, mice that practiced memory exercises, such as obstacle courses, scored similarly to mice not exposed to stress. Mice that trained made fewer mistakes when navigating obstacles compared to inactive rodents.
