According to a research presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session, regular physical exercise nearly quadrupled the cardiovascular benefit in those with depression or anxiety compared to people without these illnesses.
The findings add to the mounting evidence that exercise improves cardiovascular health by assisting in the activation of stress-relieving parts of the brain. Overall, the study discovered that those who exercised the required amount each week were 17 percent less likely to have a significant adverse cardiovascular event than those who did not. These advantages were much bigger in people who had anxiety or depression, with a 22% risk decrease compared to a 10% risk reduction in those who did not have either illness.
Hadil Zureigat, MD, a postdoctoral clinical research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and the study’s primary author, stated, “The influence of physical exercise on the brain’s stress response may be particularly significant in patients with stress-related mental illnesses.” “This is not to say that exercise is just beneficial to individuals who suffer from depression or anxiety, but we discovered that these patients appear to benefit from physical activity in a more cardiovascular way,” he said according to a medical daily.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of sadness and anxiety have soared, and heart disease remains the top cause of death in the United States. According to the researchers, the findings highlight the importance of exercise in preserving heart health and lowering stress.
Researchers looked at the health records of over 50,000 people in the Massachusetts General Brigham Biobank database for the study. A serious adverse cardiovascular event occurred in little over 4,000 of the patients, which included a heart attack, chest discomfort caused by a blocked artery, or a surgery to unblock a clogged artery in the heart.
Researchers compared the rates of major coronary events among patients who reported exercising at least 500 metabolic equivalent (MET) minutes per week in a questionnaire, which aligned with the ACC and American Heart Association primary prevention guideline recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week.
The amount of energy consumed during various activities is measured in MET-minutes, which is a unit of exercise. People who obtained at least 500 MET-minutes per week were 17 percent less likely to have a cardiovascular incident, according to the study.
They next looked at how this pattern played out in individuals who had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety vs those who had not been diagnosed with depression or anxiety. Patients with depression had more than double the benefit from exercise in terms of lower cardiovascular risk compared to persons who did not have depression, according to the second research. Patients with anxiety experienced a comparable effect from exercise.
The study builds on the research team’s prior work, which used brain imaging to demonstrate how exercise improves cardiovascular health by reducing stress in the brain. Stress-related brain activity is higher in those with depression or anxiety, and they have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
“People don’t normally think about the brain when they think of physical exercise lowering cardiovascular risk,” Zureigat added. “The relevance of stress-related brain pathways via which physical exercise reduces cardiovascular risk is highlighted by our research.”
Despite the fact that the researchers selected 500 MET-minutes as a threshold for the analysis, earlier research has shown that people can lower their risk of heart disease even if they do not do the required level of physical exercise. In terms of cardiovascular risk, even a small amount of regular physical exercise can make a difference.
“Any quantity of exercise is beneficial, especially for individuals who are depressed or anxious,” Zureigat added as per the daily. “Physical exercise will not only make people feel better, but it will also help them minimise their risk of cardiovascular disease. Physical exercise helps patients with these prevalent chronic stress-related mental illnesses to hit two birds with one stone after they have made the shift.”
