Researchers warn against excessive exercise

Dayo Ojerinde

A new study conducted in the United States of America has suggested that regular physical activity lasting 45 minutes, three to five times weekly, can reduce poor mental health, but doing more than that may not always be beneficial.

In the study published in the Lancet Psychiatry Journal, a total of 1.2 million people reported their activity levels for a month and rated their mental wellbeing.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, the study found that people who exercised had 1.5 fewer ‘bad days’ a month than non-exercisers.

The researchers noted that all types of activities were found to improve mental health, no matter people’s age or gender, including doing the housework and looking after the children.

They, however, could not confirm that physical activity was the cause of improved mental health.

A previous research into the effects of exercise on mental health had thrown up mixed results and some studies suggested that lack of activity could lead to poor mental health as well as being a symptom of it.

But the new study, according to the authors, proved that exercise was already known to reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Adults who took part in the study said they experienced on average three or four days of poor mental health each month, but those who were physically active, reduced it to only two days.

Among people who were diagnosed previously with depression, exercise appeared to have a larger effect, resulting in seven days of poor mental health a month compared with nearly 11 days for those who did no exercise.

But one of the study authors, Dr Adam Chekroud, who is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University, USA, warned that there could be such a thing as doing too much exercise.

He said, “Previously, people have believed that the more exercise you do, the better your mental health, but our study suggests that this is not the case.”

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