Literature Review #4

Exercise and Mental Health -- Literature Review #4

Citation:

Coverley Veale, D. M. W. de. “Exercise and Mental Health.” Wiley Online Library, 1987, onlinelibrary-wiley-com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1600-0447.1987.tb02872.x.

Summary:

Many people think of exercise and right away think of building muscle. There's this stigma that exercise is when you want to get bigger. When in reality, "exercise" is an umbrella term that encompasses the well-being of health. Surprisingly exercise has been known to have great psychological benefits. Author,D.MW. de Coverley Veale, reviews the mood altering properties of exercise and its potential in the prevention and treatment of mental disorders. From the findings, exercise has been proven to be a great form of therapy in response to stress and other mental health issues. The main benefit is that exercise provides a "cathartic" function for the discharge of negative emotions which lifts the moods of individuals engaged in it. It is a simple form of therapy that many people already practice regularly. 

Authors:

D.M.W. de Coverley Veale

Academic Department of Psychiatry, The Royal Free Hospital, London, UK

Key Terms:

• psychological
• of, affecting, or arising in the mind; related to the mental and emotional state of a person
• psychotherapy
• the treatment of mental disorder by psychological rather than medical means
• mental health
• a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being

Three Quotes: 

1. "While it is established that regular exercise results in physiological benefits of use in the rehabilitation and prevention of coronary heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, mild hypertension or obesity, the benefits to mental health are harder to evaluate and less well documented"(de Coverley Veale).
2. "One effective procedure taught to patients is distraction, in which the patient forces himself to attend to something other than his or her depressive thoughts. A common observation amongst runners is that exercise allows their thoughts to drift."(de Coverley Veale). 
3. "As an additional benefit it seems that a subject learns to associate the usual physical symptoms of sympathetic activity and hyperventilation with a normal health state, rather than with anxiety"(de Coverley Veale)

Value: 

This article is valuable to my research because it highlights the psychological benefits of exercise. It is another reason why exercise is so beneficially and why colleges should take it seriously. Exercise provides people with an outlet for stress, anger and negativity important to balance out our experiences day in and day out. By using this article to support my argument, it adds strength to the healthy aspects exercise can bring to college lifestlye.