Exercise for Mental Health

Q: How is exercise useful for mental health?

There is a really large research literature, both preclinical and clinical, that exercise is good for brain function. It's good for emotion regulation. It helps us sleep better. It’s good for metabolism. It's good for just overall general well-being.

It’s impossible to come up with a negative thing to say about exercise - unless you're using anabolic steroids and going down that route. There are dangers with that.

Overall, straight-up exercise is just a very good thing to do for yourself. And usually people who exercise, it kind of generalizes to other things for taking good care of yourself.

When we get in the habit of exercising, we also tend to become more mindful of what we eat, and become more stable in terms of sleep-wake rhythm.

So making exercise a part of a routine is a really helpful thing to do for mental health.

I definitely recommend it.

Q: Are there certain types of exercise that you feel like veterans tend to stick with or types that they don't stick with?

You can take your exercise out into the outdoor world and add that layer to it - where you're out in nature or something, be it walking or running or even going on a fitness course outdoors, that tends to be helpful.

Really high aerobics, of course, is extremely good for your health, but it can be harder for people to fully commit and stick to it. There's this level of discomfort you have to get through. You have to go through that wall like the runners will call it - that wall can discourage people from doing it long term.

It does not have to be punishingly hard to be really useful. Something less intense than high aerobic exercise is easier, is probably a better starting point. It is going to stick with a larger group of people probably. It does not have to be an elite level of fitness to make its mental health impact.

Dr. Neylan is a Professor, In Residence in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the Director of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) Clinic and the Stress and Health Research Program at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center.