Running, anxiety and mood

The  next two chapters in Scott Douglas's book 'Running Is My Therapy' deal with anxiety and mood.

Chapter three on How Running Helps People with Anxiety didn't seem as in-depth as the one on depression, which may just be my personal take because the author relied more on other's testimony since he doesn't struggle with anxiety himself. However there were still some worthwhile insights - which are better for active people than inactive. Here are some of my highlights...

• "Defensive pessimism" - worrying about known upcoming events that you can make better by prepping for them. (p. 72) (I'd never heard this term, but I think I like it)
  
• "It's estimated that almost 29 percent of Americans will develop an anxiety disorder at some point in their life." (p. 73)
  
• "Despite anxiety being more prevalent than depression, there have been fewer studies conducted on whether exercise is an effective treatment." (p. 78)
  
• State anxiety (temporary manifestation of symptoms) vs Trait anxiety (a more permanent aspect of personality). "The 1991 review found that symptoms of trait anxiety didn't improve significantly until after ten or more weeks of regular workouts." (p. 79)
• "For anxiety, running also has a potentially counterintuitive benefit: An activity that raises your heart rate and blood pressure and perspiration, which are common physical symptoms of anxiety, can be calming." Yes, this is me! Running is when I feel most relaxed.

Chapter four is 'How to Use Running to Improve Your Mood.' Again, I found this good, but unfortunately if you're not a runner already it won't come as such great news. 

• "Research on postexercise mood boost comes with a caveat: You probably need to be in decent shape for the boost to be genuine." Cites a study where sedentary people had a less depressed mood initially, but 30 minutes later were worse than before they started. (p. 94)
• People used to attribute endorphins to why we felt better after exercise, but that's no longer the case. Now it's endocannabinoids - "substances that bind to the same receptors in the brain as THC, the primary substance responsible for a marijuana high." (p. 97)
  
• "Most studies find significant mood boosts after thirty minutes of running..." (p. 101)
• "In his research on mood-boosting endocannabinoids, Raichlen had runners do thirty-minute workouts at four effort levels. He found the greatest increase in endocannabinoid levels after runs at 70 percent of maximum heart rate (jogging pace) and 80 percent of heart rate max (steady, conversational pace). Endocannabinoid levels decreased after Raichlen's runners sustained 50 percent max heart rate (walking) or ran for half an hour at 90 percent of max heart rate (close to 5k pace for many runners)." So your typical 'go out for a run' pace usually results in the biggest mood boost! (p. 103)
• "A 2013 study found that subjects' brains entered a more meditative state when they moved from a typical city setting to a public green space." ~Nature is better than a treadmill or city streets. Duh. ;) (p. 107)
• "...according to the World Health Organization, while depression is the leading cause of disability and bad health worldwide, on average only 3 percent of government health budgets is spent on mental-health issues." (p. 110)
• Interesting info on why running is better for mood-boosting than other exercise like swimming, weight lifting, etc. "It may be that the boost from analgesic triggers is more beneficial from some sports than others. That is, the same pounding that can lead to running injuries might also result in more of a mood boost, because it spurs your body to release its natural pain-relievers more than activities with fewer impact forces." (p. 112)
• "...there are direct neural pathways that respond to the foot hitting the ground." Yeah... if I ever get around to writing a book about running it will likely involve this!

This was sort of a good-news/bad-news section. It's good news if you're already a runner. But if you think you can just 'go out for a run' and find relief for anxiety or a bad mood... it might take awhile (btw, a runner is defined as anyone who runs/jogs at any pace at least a couple times a week). This helps explain why people who first take up exercise often stop soon after. It doesn't feel good right away. So it's important to build the routine, or habit, because eventually the benefits will come. Might also be why a good coach or trainer is important when starting out. (Though this is merely my opinion and was not suggested in the book). 

Incidentally, today is my rest day... and I can't seem to get my butt out of this chair...