Many studies suggest that mental health exercise can help people cope with problems and improve their well-being. A new observational study, the largest of its kind to date, confirms this, but it also warns that too much exercise can have a negative impact on mental health.

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Recently, researchers at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, analyzed data from 1.2 million people to better understand how exercise, a person’s mental health status and the types of exercises are in progress which is the best effect and encouraging.

Most importantly, they also asked how much exercise was too much.

The researchers found that various types of team-based sports, cycling, and aerobic exercise are the most beneficial for mental health. They report this discovery and others in a paper now published in the periodical “The Lancet Psychiatry.”

“Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world and there is an urgent need to find ways to improve mental health through public health campaigns,” said the study’s author, Dr. Adam Chekroud.

“The movement is associated with a lower psychological burden for people, regardless of age, race, sex, family income, and educational attainment” he adds.

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Nearly Any Type of Mental Health Exercise Can Help You

Study participants were recruited from the survey on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 2011, 2013 and 2015.

For their analysis, the researchers used not only demographic information but also data on participants’ mental and physical health and their health behavior. However, the only specific mental disorder considered by the researchers was depression.

With regard to the type of exercises included in the study, the researchers observed many types of activities, including childcare, housework, cycling, gymnastics and running.

Volunteers provided estimates of how often they had mental health problems in the last 30 days. They also reported how often they had formed during the same period and for how long.

Dr. Chekroud and his team adapted to capture the results of their analysis of the potentially impacting factor, including the age, race, and sex of the study participants and their marital status, income, level of education and their body mass index.

On average, participants reported 3.4 days of poor mental health per month. Compared to those who did not participate in any exercise, those trained had 1.5 days less mental health per month.

In addition, the difference was even more pronounced among people who had previously been diagnosed with depression than among those who had entered it. 3.75 fewer months had had bad days in exercise than their peers without exercise.

Any type of exercise seemed to help control mental health problems. Team sports, cycling, aerobics and gymnastics were the most useful.

But activities that are not generally considered exercise, such as housework, are also related to better mental health.

How Much Mental Health Exercise is the Best?

The researchers found that those who benefited the most from mental health were those who had completed 30 to 60 minutes of training three to five times a week.

Scientists also found that the link between better mental health and exercise, which in the case of mental illness was a 43.2% reduction, was more important than the link between this factor and other influenceable factors.

Conclusion:

Mental health exercise is important for everyone because it keeps your mind free from unnecessary thoughts that not only impact your mind but also impact your body.

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