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Title: Stopping exercise can increase symptoms of depression Date: 22 Mar 2018 Citation: University of Adelaide. (2018, March 22). Stopping exercise can increase symptoms of depression. ScienceDaily . Retrieved April 2, 2021 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180322112720.htm URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180322112720.htm Stopping exercise can result in increased depressive symptoms, according to new mental health research from the University of Adelaide. PhD student Julie Morgan from the University of Adelaide's Discipline of Psychiatry has reviewed the results of earlier studies that examined the effects of stopping exercise in regularly active adults. The results of her review are now published online ahead of print in the Journal of Affective Disorders . "Adequate physical activity and exercise are important for both physical and mental health," says Ms Morgan. "Current public health guidelines recommend being active on most if not all days of the week. At least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week is recommended to maintain health and prevent depression, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise for added health benefits. "An extensive body of clinical evidence shows that regular exercise can reduce and treat depression. However, there is limited research into what happens with depressive symptoms when exercise is stopped," she says. Ms Morgan reviewed studies that investigated the cessation of exercise in 152 adults. They had each undertaken at least 30 minutes of exercise, three times a week, for a minimum of three months. "In some cases, ceasing this amount of exercise induced significant increases in depressive symptoms after just three days," says Professor Bernhard Baune, Head of Psychiatry at the University of Adelaide and senior author on the paper. "Other studies showed that people's depressive symptoms increased after the first one or two weeks, which is still quite soon after stopping their exercise." Professor Baune says the depressive symptoms arising from stopping exercise occurred in the absence of the typical biological markers commonly involved with depressive symptoms. "This suggests some kind of novel effect in these cases, although we should add some caution here, as the number of people included in the studies we examined was small. Such findings would need to be replicated in additional trials," he says. Professor Baune says the lack of research in this specific area points to the need for further studies, to help better understand the way in which stopping exercise affects depressive symptoms. "For now, it is important that people understand the potential impact on their mental well-being when they suddenly cease regular exercise," he says.

Goals. Something we should all have. We can’t start moving in the right direction unless we have something that we’re moving towards. Whether we set out to be better in the gym, improve our family life, or to simply grow as individuals, they help provide purpose and reason for going outside of our comfort zone. But what happens when we accomplish that goal? We enjoy it for a little while and then it’s on to the next one. An overwhelming majority of our time is spent working towards our goals and not basking in the glory of achieving them. In fact, it’s really easy to get burnt out when we remain solely focused on the goal, or outcome, and it’s not always apparent we are moving towards it on a daily basis. I think we need to focus our mindset appropriately to provide the maximum possibility of achieving what we set out to do. Something that has always stuck with me is learning to find joy in “the process.” The process is a vague term and can look at lot different depending on if your goal is within fitness, academics, etc. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll use the gym as an example. What finding joy in the process means to me is taking satisfaction in the daily grind. It’s pride in knowing that I put in the work today and that I got just a little bit better and a little closer to where I want to be. Another way we could describe “the process” is having a performance-based mindset. If your goal is to lose ten pounds of fat, it can be incredibly disheartening to check the scale every morning and not see the number change, even though there is a myriad of other factors that affect the number on the scale. It is extremely easy to get overwhelmed and give up on that goal when we are solely outcome based. A performance-based mindset would be more concerned about abiding by a daily caloric deficit, eating nutrient dense food, hydrating sufficiently, and trusting that if the right steps are taken each day then the outcome will take care of itself. It’s not glamorous, but you almost have to love doing the work more than you enjoy the result. The satisfaction of the result comes from having the discipline to do something that others just won’t do. It’s easy to see how we can apply this mindset in multiple areas of our lives. If you want to have a better home life, then the work must be put in to make that happen. The same goes with finances, or anything that is not easily achievable. At Operation RSF, we connect individuals with fitness communities to help improve physical and emotional well-being. Some of the individuals we work with struggling with the effects of Post Traumatic Stress, depression, and anxiety truly understand what it means to find joy in the process. It’s been incredibly inspirational when I hear stories from someone along the lines of “I still have a long way to go, but I got a little bit better today and I’m happy about that.” I think this perfectly articulates the point stressed in this blog. The last point I’ll make is something a baseball coach shared with me years ago. You either get better or you get worse. Nobody just stays the same. What direction are you heading? Set your goals high but develop your passion for putting in the work each day and doing the things that others will not. The rest will take care of itself.

Title: Study suggests role of sleep in healing traumatic brain injuries Date: 12 March 2021 URL: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/ohs-ssr031221.php Sound sleep plays a critical role in healing traumatic brain injury, a new study of military veterans suggests. The study, published in the Journal of Neurotrauma , used a new technique involving magnetic resonance imaging developed at Oregon Health & Science University. Researchers used MRI to evaluate the enlargement of perivascular spaces that surround blood vessels in the brain. Enlargement of these spaces occurs in aging and is associated with the development of dementia. Among veterans in the study, those who slept poorly had more evidence of these enlarged spaces and more post-concussive symptoms. "This has huge implications for the armed forces as well as civilians," said lead author Juan Piantino, M.D., MCR, assistant professor of pediatrics (neurology) in the OHSU School of Medicine and Doernbecher Children's Hospital. "This study suggests sleep may play an important role in clearing waste from the brain after traumatic brain injury - and if you don't sleep very well, you might not clean your brain as efficiently." Piantino, a physician-scientist with OHSU's Papé Family Pediatric Research Institute, studies the effects of poor sleep on recovery after traumatic brain injuries. The new study benefited from a method of analyzing MRIs developed by study co-author Daniel Schwartz and Erin Boespflug, Ph.D., under the direction of Lisa Silbert, M.D., M.C.R., professor of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine. The technique measures changes in the brain's perivascular spaces, which are part of the brain's waste clearance system known as the glymphatic system. "We were able to very precisely measure this structure and count the number, location and diameter of channels," Piantino said. Co-author Jeffrey Iliff, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and of neurology at the University of Washington and a researcher at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, has led scientific research into the glymphatic system and its role in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. During sleep, this brain-wide network clears away metabolic proteins that would otherwise build up in the brain. The study used data collected from a group of 56 veterans enrolled by co-authors Elaine Peskind, M.D., and Murray Raskind, M.D., at the Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center at the VA Puget Sound between 2011 and 2019. "Imagine your brain is generating all this waste and everything is working fine," Piantino said. "Now you get a concussion. The brain generates much more waste that it has to remove, but the system becomes plugged." Piantino said the new study suggests the technique developed by Silbert could be useful for older adults. "Longer term, we can start thinking about using this method to predict who is going to be at higher risk for cognitive problems including dementia," he said. The study is the latest in a growing body of research highlighting the importance of sleep in brain health. Improving sleep is a modifiable habit that can be improved through a variety of methods, Piantino said, including better sleep hygiene habits such as reducing screen time before bed. Improving sleep is a focus of research of other OHSU scientists, including Piantino's mentor, Miranda Lim, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of neurology, medicine and behavioral neuroscience in the OHSU School of Medicine. "This study puts sleep at the epicenter of recovery in traumatic brain injury," Piantino said. The study was supported by the National heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, award K23HL150217-01; the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Service Merit Review grant B77421; and NIH award P30AG008017-18.