how to get happy-fit
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Exercise is so good at improving mood that it’s actually become a standard treatment for depression and, in the UK, is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as a first line of treatment. How does it work? Exercise causes the body to generate ‘happy chemicals’ including endorphins and phenylethylamine (PEA), the very same substance that gives lovers that ‘walking on air’ feeling. At the same time, it reduce cortisol, a stress hormone linked with low mood. It also raises core temperature, leading to muscle relax- ation. And it tends to ‘shut down’ the logical left side of the brain, freeing the right side for the sort of creative thinking that often results in what appear to be magical solutions to life’s prob- lems. You’ll begin to feel the benefits with as little as ten minutes of vigorous exercise a day.
Let’s get one thing clear right at the start. Contrary to everything you may have believed, exer- cise makes you happy Exercise is fun. Yes, Fun – F U N. There’s no surer way to boost your mood both
immediately and in the longer term.
You may already know it. But if you don’t, I’m going to try to convince you. Scientists can mea- sure these things. And they’ve found that the levels of endorphins, phenylethylamine and noradrenaline/ norepinephrine- some of what might be called ‘happy chemicals’ – shoot up when you exercise.
We’ve already met noradrenaline and you may remember that in Chapter 4 it was said to be bad for you. Well, that’s what makes hormones so complicated. Noradrenaline released during periods of stress is bad for you. But when you’re happy – when, for example, phenylethylamine is present – you’ll feel great. And if dopamine is also present you’ll feel euphoric. (You see, it’s seldom a matter of any individual hormone acting alone, it’s the cocktail.)
What’s more, exercise isn’t only exhilarating at the time. Regular exercise has an enduring effect that also helps keep you smiling through life’s little crises.
It isn’t just a matter of producing happiness chemicals. And it isn’t just a matter of strengthening your heart/lung system and various muscles. It’s also about improving the function of just about every part of your organism. It’s about feeling vital, animated, alive. It’s about feeling and being healthy.
And when you feel healthy you tend to feel happy. In fact, in many studies, good health is rated second only to marriage as a fundamental cause of happiness; particular for older people, who don’t take it for granted the way younger people do. And it works both ways. Health equals happiness and happi- ness equals health.
But it doesn’t stop there. People who exercise a little every week enjoy two extra years of life compared with the couch potatoes. And people who exercise a little more – but still only moderately – enjoy almost four extra years. Those who exercise regularly and vigorously gain as much as ten years, according to some researchers.
So what are you waiting for? Enjoying your body doesn’t have to be painful, boring or repetitive. Think dancing. Think skiing. Think swimming. Think volleyball with friends on the beach. Think football. Whatever you fancy.
Even if you’re convinced there’s no form of exercise you’d like (you’re wrong), remember this: just watching television will become more enjoyable as a result of exercising. In fact, everything you do will be enhanced because exercise not only gets the blood pumping into every corner to your body, but also every nook and cranny in your brain.
In Britain, about four-fifths of people don’t get enough exercise. That’s an awful lot of less-than- optimum happiness. Join the one-fifth who do! you’ll:
- feel happier
- sleep better
- have more energy
- look better
- enjoy greater self-esteem
- think more clearly (especially if you’re older)
- handle stress more easily
- have a reduced risk of heart attack
- increase your levels of HDL or ‘good’ cholesterol
- lower your blood pressure
- increase your bone density
- boost your immune system
- enhance your sexual responsiveness
- increase your life
In other words, you’ll be happy-fit.
Warning
The NHS warns that if you haven’t been exercising regularly and have any of the following characteristics you should check with your doctor before beginning an exercise programme:
- over 35 and a smoker
- over 40 and inactive
- diabetic
- at risk of heart disease
- high blood pressure
- high cholesterol
- experience chest pains while exercising
- difficulty breathing during mild
The depression buster
Exercise is so good at improving mood that it’s actually become a standard treatment for depres-
sion. In the UK, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends exercise and psychotherapy, rather than antidepressants, as the first line of treatment for mild depression. In fact, it’s beneficial for all types of depression. In carefully controlled trials, exercise has performed just as well as antidepressants in combating depression, but without the side effects of drugs.
Generating those happy chemicals
So why should exercise feel so good? When you think about it, it’s not hard to understand how human beings evolved that way. Our ancestors had to be capable of vigorous activity if they were to eat. When their muscles screamed for respit, those whose bodies produced chemicals to ease the pain were the ones who ran down the prey and got the food. Logically, they were also the ones evolution selected. Well, that’s a simplistic way of putting it, but right in essence. Nowadays we only have to be capable of lifting a can off a shelf, but our bodies remain unchanged. So if we want to enjoy those same chemicals, we have to exercise. Here are those happy chemicals:
- Endorphin: the word means ‘endogenous morphine’, that’s to say. morphine-like sub stance produced by the Endorphins combat pain, promote happiness and are one of the ingredients in the ‘runner’s high’.
- Phenylethylamine (PEA): this chemical is also found in chocolate as well as some fizzy Researchers at Rush University and the Center for Creative Development, Chicago, have demonstrated that PEA is a powerful antidepressant. Mean while, scien tists at Nottingham Trent University in the UK have shown that PEA levels increase significantly following exercise.
- Noradrenaline/norepinephrine (NE): when generated by exercise, noradrenaline tends to make your feel happy, confident, positive and
- Serotonin: the link with exercise isn’t so strong for this one, but serotonin is a neurotrans mitter for happiness and there’s reason to think exercise elevates its level in the
In addition, exercise lowers the level of:
- cortisol: a stress hormone linked with low mood. There are also two further processes at work:
- Thermogenics: exercise increases the body’s core temperature, which in turn relaxes muscles, which in turn induces a feeling of
- Right brain/left brain: repetitive physical activities such as jogging ‘shut down’ the left side of the brain (logical thought), freeing up the right brain (creative thought). It’s a kind of meditation and it’s why solutions to seemingly intractable problems oftne appear ‘by magic’ when
How much exercise?
Remember that we’re primarily looking at exercise as a source of happiness, not physical fitness. So how much exercise does it take to boost those all-important happiness chemicals? The good news is, surprisingly little. Let’s take a look:
- Endorphins: the level of beta-endorphins, the chemicals the body releases to combat pain, increses five times after 12 minutes of vigorous
- phenylethylamine (PEA): the researchers at Nottingham Trent University found that running at 70 percent of maximum heart rate (MHR – see below) for 30 minutes in creased the level of phenylacetic acid in the urine (which reflects phenylethylamine) by 77
- Noradrenaline/norepinephrine (NE): this increases up to ten times following eight min utes of vigorous
Keeping motivated
Knowing that exercise will make you happier as well as improving your health should be enough to make you throw down this book right now and head straight for the door. But, unfortunately, life isn’t like that. We seldom do the things that are good for us and even if we start out with the best of intentions it’s all too easy to backslide. So here are a few tips on keeping motivated:
- Try to take your exercise regularly at a certain time every day, and on your days ‘off’ just go for a leisurely stroll; then when the time comes round, your body will soon start demanding that you do something active with
- If your favourite exercise is out of doors, try to have an indoor back-up you can turn to in bad
- Exercise together with friends and jolly each another along (unless, of course, you perfer to be alone).
- Don’t strain; take it easy and build up
- Keep an exercise diary and enter your distances, times, heart rates, scores or whatever;
look at it form time to time and take pride in your progress.
- Give yourself rewards whenever you achieve a particular goal; if it’s a cup you covet, then award yourself a cup-or it could be new clothes, a meal out, a message or whatever you fancy (and can afford).
- Hang up a poster of your ideal body; that’s how you’re going to be
- Keep thinking of the health benefits – lower resting heart rate, blood pressure and weitht, fewer health problems and 2-10 extra years of
- Maintain a ‘happiness diary’. Undoubtedly it will show that you already have more happiness in your life than you It will also prove that by following tha advice in this book you are adding to your happiness day by day.
