Does mental health affect physical health?

Working within the NDIS means that Active Ability exercise physiologists provide exercise-based services to such a broad variety of clients who are looking for assistance to improve their quality of life through improving lifestyle behaviours, such as initiating a regular exercise routine or managing a healthy diet. Many of these clients come with questions regarding the relationship between physical exercise and mental health and the interactions between physical health and mental health.

According to Exercise Right, an evidence-based public awareness campaign run by Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA), 1 in 5 Australians will experience one or more mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar and personality disorder ⁴. The effects of a mental illness significantly impact cognitive functioning, social life, work, physical activities as well as physical health ⁴.

Some of the more common symptoms associated with mental illness include:

• impaired executive functioning (the ability for informed control of behaviours),
• increased fatigue,
• lack of motivation,
• impaired self-care and self-management (the ability to be independent) and
• varying mood and energy levels.

These symptoms all lead to a reduced ability to appropriately look after one’s own mental and physical health and the current 10-25-year reduced life expectancy experienced by individuals living with mental illness occurs as a result of this ^{3, 5}. For example, individual’s living with a mental health diagnosis often report a higher rate of tiredness when completing physical activity and require increased rest when initiating exercise to assist managing the high fatigue and low motivation experienced as a result of their mental illness. If not managed appropriately, this leads to decreased participation in physical activity (and therefore poorer physical health) due to feelings of exhaustion and being unable to meet exercise expectations. In summary, yes, an individual’s mental health can severely impact their physical health, and both need to be managed conjunctively to best improve an individual’s quality of life.

How does mental health affect physical health?

Mental health and physical health should not be thought of, and treated, as separate components of our healthcare but rather part of the co-occurring components leading to overall quality of life. More and more research studies convey the importance of needing to maintain good physical health to ensure good mental health as well as maintaining good mental health to ensure good physical health as each can negatively impact the other when not well managed ^6-8. These studies show that poor mental health is linked to an increased risk of many chronic comorbidities such as heart and lung diseases, obesity, cancer, muscle and bone disorders and even co-occurring mental illnesses ^1-3. Often this increased risk of comorbidities has been linked to various problems such as an inability to access appropriate healthcare, insufficient education, behavioural/lifestyle factors and simply the individual’s physical needs just being overlooked ¹.

In addition to this, it’s well documented that individuals with mental health diagnoses lead increased sedentary lives when compared to their peers without mental illness. This increased sedentary time is associated with both poorer adverse mental health status as well as adverse physical health (greater lifestyle co-morbidities) ⁹. High levels of sedentary behaviour is also linked with poorer cognitive function, physical activity levels and quality of life as well as increased levels of disability, due to the poor physical health parameters associated with such behaviour ¹⁰.

 

Benefits of exercise on mental health

It’s well known that the physical and psychological benefits of exercise are an effective treatment for both acute and chronic mental illnesses, in some instances as effective, if not more so, than some pharmacological management ^{3, 5}. There are many benefits of exercise for improved mental health, the most well-known being increased production of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, which lead to improved mood and energy. Similarly, exercise can improve mental health by improving blood circulation to the brain, particularly to areas such as the:

• limbic system (motivation and mood),
• amygdala (emotion) and
• hippocampus (memory)

which are all significantly impacted by mental health diagnoses ^{2, 3, 5}.

Exercise similarly is evidenced to be very effective in the management of the lifestyle risk factors and chronic diseases associated with poor physical and mental health. For example, exercise assists with weight control, managing blood pressure and cholesterol, poor sleep, stress levels, muscle pain, fatigue, endurance and overall cognitive functioning and mental alertness ⁴.

This is where the experienced team from Active Ability can help. Our exercise physiologists are experts in designing exercise programs for people with mental illness. Our programs are all based on a personalised assessment to ensure they are suited to your needs, goals and health concerns.

 

If you would like to improve your mental health, Active Ability’s dedicated team of exercise physiologists can visit you at home, or your workplace, gym, pool or other preferred location.

Click here if you would like to know more about how our team could help you or someone you know achieve better health and wellbeing,

Or get in touch with us on (02) 8678 7874, hello@activeability.com.au or via our contact form

 

References:

1. Department of Health | Physical health. (2020). Retrieved 1 November 2020, from https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-p-mono-toc~mental-pubs-p-mono-bas~mental-pubs-p-mono-bas-alt~mental-pubs-p-mono-bas-alt-phy
2. Exercise and mental health. (2020). Retrieved 1 November 2020, from https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/exercise-and-mental-health
3. How does mental illness impact our physical body?. (2020). Retrieved 1 November 2020, from https://www.mqmentalhealth.org/posts/4-ways-our-physical-health-could-be-impacted-by-our-mental-health
4. Mental Health and Exercise – What you need to know!. (2020). Retrieved 1 November 2020, from https://exerciseright.com.au/mental-health/
5. Physical health and mental health. (2020). Retrieved 1 November 2020, from https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/p/physical-health-and-mental-health#:~:text=But%20when%20considering%20mental%20health,increased%20risk%20of%20some%20conditions
6. Huang, J., Han, B., Wan, F., & Tan, G. (2020). The Inuence of Physical and Mental Exercises on the Mental Health of Middle-Aged and Old People: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. doi: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-87489/v1
7. Is exercise effective in promoting mental well-being in older age? A systematic review. (2020). Retrieved 1 November 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13607861003713232
8. Stanton, R., & Happell, B. (2013). Exercise for mental illness: A systematic review of inpatient studies. International Journal Of Mental Health Nursing, 23(3), 232-242. doi: 10.1111/inm.12045
9. Hamer, M., Coombs, N. and Stamatakis, E., 2014. Associations between objectively assessed and self-reported sedentary time with mental health in adults: an analysis of data from the Health Survey for England. BMJ Open, 4(3), p.e004580.
10. Saunders, T., McIsaac, T., Douillette, K., Gaulton, N., Hunter, S., Rhodes, R., Prince, S., Carson, V., Chaput, J., Chastin, S., Giangregorio, L., Janssen, I., Katzmarzyk, P., Kho, M., Poitras, V., Powell, K., Ross, R., Ross-White, A., Tremblay, M. and Healy, G., 2020. Sedentary behaviour and health in adults: an overview of systematic reviews. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 45(10 (Suppl. 2), pp.S197-S217.