Physical Activity for Reducing Anxiety

by Mathpou on December 4, 2017 - 6:57pm

There are all types of students circulating in the school's classes. Some studies in natural sciences to become a future doctor, some perform in a precise environment to help people in need and some change from a program to another waiting to know what passionate them. Despite the fact that every student in different, they all share a common characteristic; they pass through the famous end of session's rush. In this period, more than 45% of the students present anxiety symptoms. This sound alarming an unwealthy for a future generation. This problem is not new to our society but it is clearly a rising problematic as the percentage of affected students increase each year. A common solution to decrease this rate of anxiety was proposed by many institutions, doing a physical activity reduces the anxiety level of a person and it increases his or her concentration. These institutions are Dartmouth College, University of Illinois, Nutrisanté Laboratoires and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

 
Effectively, after doing a physical activity, a person should have a rise in its concentration capacity for about 45 minutes and this if the person is not a physically active person. When the person is active, the effects are more in the long term reducing nettly the anxiety level. There is a scientific explanation to all this, the rise of oxygen in the body, therefore in the brain, helps most of the chemical reactions occurring. This result in less "stress protein" released as the immune system is not activated. This solution was applied in school in Québec City. A small course was made available for everyone. The goal was to show that even when you think you do not have time for sports, you can do a physical activity. The race did not even last 30 minutes and it was fun, it did not feel like you were doing a training. Once the race was over, the attendants were given information about the welfares of this activity and why they should implant a physical activity in their routines.
 
The goal of all this was to diminish the anxiety level of the students.
 
Some photos of the course are linked.
 

 

 

1. American Psychological Association, Students under pressure, consulted December 4 2017, URL : http://www.apa.org/monitor/2014/09/cover-pressure.aspx

About the author

Mathpou

Class

Sustainable Happiness F17

Related Issues

Mental Health