Exercise: it is the chill pill for stress?

Abstract

Mental stress often increases our blood pressure, and makes us feel anxious, stressed and unhappy. Large increases in blood pressure and psychological responses to stress can lead to cardiovascular disease and psychological disorders. Exercise is proposed to potentially reduce these blood pressure and negative emotional responses experienced during mental stress. Forty individuals completed a 10-minute mental stress task on two separate occasions: once on its own, and once after 10-minutes of moderately high intensity cycling. Results showed blood pressure during stress was lower after exercise. However, participants also experienced greater anxiety, feelings of stress, and negative emotions such as tension and depression, during the stress following exercise. Therefore, exercise before stress may be good in reducing our blood pressure response to stress and thus reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, but bad for our psychological health by causing more negative thoughts and emotions.