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Just a bit of exercise can improve mental health, scientists, psychologists say

Published

2 months ago

6 minute read

By Nicole Ireland

It’s that time of year when gloomy weather and New Year’s resolutions gone by the wayside leave many of us not feeling our best. Even if we know that exercise will help us feel better, getting up and moving can feel like too much of a challenge, especially for those suffering from anxiety or depression.

Some exercise scientists and psychologists say many of the messages we get about fitness don’t help.

“There’s really strong evidence that exercise can be beneficial to help reduce depression and anxiety symptoms,” said Jennifer Heisz, Canada Research Chair in Brain Health and Aging in the department of kinesiology at McMaster University.

“(But) I think it’s very off-putting when you look at the exercise guidelines for physical health and you think that you need to achieve those for mental health.”

The World Health Organization recommends that adults between 18 and 64 should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, plus muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.

ParticipACTION, an organization promoting physical activity, said it takes much less than that to gain mental-health benefits, but many people don’t know that. It commissioned an online survey of 1,526 adult Canadians conducted by Leger, which found that 36 per cent of respondents thought they needed to exercise for more than half an hour to “feel the mental boost.”

Not true, said Leigh Vanderloo, an exercise scientist with ParticipACTION.

Taking 10 to 15 minutes a day to move your body “is going to have some pretty promising effects from a mental-health impact,” Vanderloo said.

“There’s no such thing as bad movement,” she said. “Think of all the opportunities you have in your day already that you could be moving more.”

That could mean taking a quick walk around the office between meetings, parking a bit further away when you’re picking up the kids from school, running upstairs, raking leaves, housecleaning, gardening or dancing, Vanderloo said.

“Every step counts,” said Heisz.

For people with clinical depression or anxiety, “exercise can be a great add-on therapy to take in addition to medication,” she said. But those conditions can also make it hard to get off the couch.

“Trying to get motivated to exercise is really difficult, especially if you think it’s this big one-hour or tough workout that you have to do to get the benefits, when in fact it’s not,” Heisz said.

Dr. Zarina Giannone, a Vancouver psychologist specializing in sports, performance and exercise, agrees that one of the barriers is having the energy and “inner resources” needed to get active.

“With folks like that, it’s just so important to really, first of all, start very small and very slow,” she said.

“I’ve encouraged people to just do really small things — things that already (are) built into the world, like going for walks, doing some of that exercise within the home, using body weight, like things like that,” she said.

If people want to try going to the gym but are feeling overwhelmed, Giannone suggests they start with 15 minutes twice a week — and they may just spend that time walking around and becoming familiar with the space.

“And then the next week, it’s maybe building on that. But it’s gradual, it’s slow,” she said.

It’s also important for people to be “flexible” if they’re making fitness goals, said Pier-Éric Chamberland, chair of the sport and exercise section of the Canadian Psychological Association.

Otherwise, they can fall into the trap of “all or nothing,” he said.

If you were planning to do a 45-minute workout but find yourself short on time, don’t just dismiss exercise that day, Chamberland recommended.

Instead, take the 15 minutes you do have and do something else like walking, he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way many think about exercise, said Heisz.

“There was a shift in why people wanted to work out,” she said. “So instead of working out for their physical health — like to be stronger or fitter — they wanted to work out for their mental health.”

That’s a healthy change from the focus on weight loss so many people have, Vanderloo said.

“I’d like to see more of a shift towards, you know, ‘I get active for my mental health, for stress management,'” she said.

“These are all benefits that come with getting active that have nothing to do with weight.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 25, 2023.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

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Health

Job opportunities: Red Deer Primary Care Network hiring a Support Nurse and a Pharmacist

Published on March 27, 2023

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Please forward these postings to potential applicants

Support Nurse
(Panel Manager/Practice Facilitator)
Temporary Full Time Position (1 year with possibility to extend)

Our Support Nurses are excited about being part of an innovative organization that puts patients first. Continuous quality improvement is in our DNA.

A day in the life of a Support Nurse at the Red Deer Primary Care Network includes:

 Identifying patient panels with physicians and clinic staff
 Collaborating with a team of RDPCN family physicians and other health care professionals to engage, encourage and support patient health
 Prevention and health promotion through routine screening according to guidelines

If you:

 are a Licensed Practical Nurse
 hold membership in good standing with CLPNA,
 have experience with excel and word,
 Mandatory COVID-19 immunization policy in effect.

Act Now. APPLY

See our website for full job description. Submit your curriculum vitae to [email protected] or by fax to 403.342.9502

Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. Open until suitable candidate is found

Pharmacist
(0.8 – 1.0 FTE Permanent)

We are seeking a qualified Pharmacist with exceptional communication skills to fill a permanent 0.8-1.0 FTE. The Pharmacist will enhance primary care through the provision of services for patients in the patient’s medical home. Within the generalist pharmacist role, you will provide pharmacy services to the population of patients seen by the family physician. Areas of focus include structured medication reviews relating to chronic pain management and geriatric assessment, as well as other medication.

We are looking for someone who has:

 A multidisciplinary team philosophy.
 Recent complex care clinical experience
 Must have strong values towards teamwork and interpersonal skills.
 Excellent knowledge of community resources.
 Current professional registration
 Mandatory COVID-19 immunization policy in effect.

Act Now and Apply

Submit your curriculum vitae to [email protected] or by fax to 403.342.9502

Only selected candidates for an interview will be contacted.

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Health

What to know about new research on coffee and heart risks

Published on March 25, 2023

By

A worker prepares a coffee drink at a shop in Overland Park, Kan., Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, healthy volunteers who were asked to drink coffee or skip it on different days showed no signs of an increase in a certain type of heart rhythm after sipping the caffeinated drinks, although they did walk more and sleep less. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

By Jonel Aleccia

Coffee lovers — and their doctors — have long wondered whether a jolt of java can affect the heart. New research published Wednesday finds that drinking caffeinated coffee did not significantly affect one kind of heart hiccup that can feel like a skipped beat.

But it did signal a slight increase in another type of irregular heartbeat in people who drank more than one cup per day. And it found that people tend to walk more and sleep less on the days they drank coffee.

Coffee is one of the most common beverages in the world. In the U.S., two-thirds of Americans drink coffee every day, more than bottled water, tea or tap water, according to the National Coffee Association, a trade group. Coffee contains caffeine, a stimulant, which is widely regarded as safe for healthy adults at about 400 milligrams per day, or roughly the equivalent of four or five cups brewed at home.

Coffee has been associated with multiple health benefits and even a lower risk of dying, based on large studies that observed participants’ behavior. Despite research that has shown moderate coffee consumption doesn’t raise the risk of heart rhythm problems, some professional medical societies still caution against consuming caffeine.

The latest research:

THE EXPERIMENT

Researchers outfitted 100 healthy volunteers with gadgets that continuously monitored their heart function, daily steps, sleep patterns and blood sugar. The volunteers, who were mostly younger than 40, were sent daily text messages over two weeks instructing them to drink or avoid caffeinated coffee on certain days. The results were reported Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This type of study, which directly measures the biological effects of drinking or not drinking caffeinated coffee in the same people, is rare and provides a dense array of data points, said study co-author Dr. Gregory Marcus, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who specializes in treating heart arrhythmias.

THE FINDINGS

Researchers found that drinking caffeinated coffee did not result in more daily episodes of extra heartbeats, known as premature atrial contractions. These extra beats that begin in the heart’s upper chambers are common and typically don’t cause problems. But they have been shown to predict a potentially dangerous heart condition called atrial fibrillation.

They also found slight evidence of another kind of irregular heartbeat that comes from the lower heart chambers, called premature ventricular contractions. Such beats are also common and not usually serious, but they have been associated with a higher risk of heart failure. The researchers found more of these early beats in people on the days they drank coffee, but only in those who drank two or more cups per day.

The volunteers logged about 1,000 more steps per day on the days they drank coffee — and they slept about 36 minutes less, the study found. There was almost no difference in blood sugar levels.

One interesting result: People with genetic variants that make them break down caffeine faster experienced less of a sleep deficit, while folks with variants that lead them to metabolize caffeine more slowly lost more sleep.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

Because the study was performed in a small number of people over a short period of time, the results don’t necessarily apply to the general population, said Dr. Dave Kao, a cardiologist and health data expert at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. However, the study is consistent with others that have found coffee is safe and it offers a rare controlled evaluation of caffeine’s effect, Kao added.

Co-author Marcus cautions that the effects of drinking coffee can vary from person to person. He said he advises his patients with heart arrhythmias to experiment on their own to see how caffeine affects them.

“They’re often delighted to get the good news that it’s OK to try coffee and drink coffee,” he said.

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