A recent study suggests that regular exercise can significantly decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 25%, partly by reducing stress levels.
The research indicates that exercise helps lower stress-related brain activity, which is a factor in the development of cardiovascular diseases.
The study, which involved more than 50,000 participants, revealed that individuals who met the recommended exercise guidelines of 150 minutes per week had a 23% lower risk of developed cardiovascular disease compared to those who did not meet these guidelines.
Moreover, individuals with stress-related conditions like depression experienced the most benefits from regular exercise.
Published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), the study highlights how physical activity can have positive effects on the brain. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed the medical records and other data of 50,359 participants from the Mass General Brigham Biobank who completed a physical activity survey.
Brain imaging tests were conducted on a subset of 774 participants, along with measurements of stress-related brain activity.
Over a follow-up period averaging ten years, 12.9% of participants developed cardiovascular disease. Those who met the physical activity recommendations had a 23% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease compared to those who didn’t meet the recommendations.
Additionally, they tended to exhibit lower stress-related brain activity.
The study found that reductions in stress-associated brain activity were particularly linked to improvements in the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in executive functions such as decision-making and impulse control.
Furthermore, the cardiovascular benefits of exercise were twice as strong in participants with depression and higher stress-related brain activity.
Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, a cardiologist at the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and the senior author of the study, hopes that clinicians will use these findings to encourage more patients to engage in physical activity as a means to reduce stress and depression.
Dr. Tawakol told The Harvard Gazette, “Physical activity was roughly twice as effective in lowering cardiovascular disease risk among those with depression. Effects on the brain’s stress-related activity may explain this novel observation.”
“Prospective studies are needed to identity potential mediators and to prove causality. In the meantime, clinicians could convey to patients that physical activity may have important brain effects, which may impart greater cardiovascular benefits among individuals with stress-related syndromes such as depression.”
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