How Lifestyle Affects Mental Health
Lifestyle changes such
as diet, exercise, and stress reduction can have a significant impact on
improving your mental health. Several aspects of a healthy lifestyle can
improve mental health, including changes in diet and physical activity. Doing
the recommended amount of exercise can lead to beneficial changes in mood,
anxiety, and depression. Just 30 minutes of exercise a week can help relieve
mood swings, anxiety, and depression.
Physical activity
levels can also affect mental well-being in terms of mood, stress, self-esteem,
anxiety, dementia, and depression. Social well-being—separate but interrelated
and often included in the definition of mental well-being—can also influence
physical health and is relevant here. Health professionals are increasingly
calling for psychological well-being to be considered when treating the
physical symptoms of illness, and vice versa.
While you should seek
professional help if you are suffering from symptoms of a mental illness, there
is a lot you can do to manage your condition, along with any medical help you
can get from a qualified doctor.
Mental illnesses are
real health problems, which means you can't treat them just by making lifestyle
changes. People with physical health problems, especially those with chronic
conditions, are at greater risk for poor mental health, especially depression
and anxiety: About 30 percent of people with chronic conditions also have
mental health problems. Physical health problems from smoking — heart disease,
cough, emphysema, frequent colds, difficulty exercising — can lead to emotional
and mental health problems. An unhealthy lifestyle not only affects the body, but also affects the mind.
Fortunately, lifestyle
choices can reduce the negative effects of stress and depression. Our healthy
lifestyle choices can (1) protect the brain and body from stress and
inflammation, reduce the risk of depression, and (3) reduce depressive
symptoms in those who are already depressed. You'll also learn how lifestyle
choices can boost brain health, reduce the negative effects of stress, and
reduce your risk of depression. This knowledge shows that we need to make
choices that promote our brain and body health.
Read about how you can
make sure you're eating a balanced diet. According to Dr. Core, when you eat a
healthy diet, you set yourself up for fewer mood swings, a happier overall
outlook, and a better ability to concentrate.
Eating a healthy diet,
especially eating up to eight servings of fruits and vegetables a day (28)
(29), can have a positive impact on physical and mental health. A growing body
of research shows that healthy fats, such as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids,
as well as those found in fruits like avocados, can increase brain power and
improve mood. However, reducing a lean diet to an unhealthy lifestyle may be an
oversimplification, as the positive effects of vegetarianism on physical health
are well documented [85], and research on the relationship between
vegetarianism and mental health remains relevant. Childhood (see next section
for more information).
Although the effects
were small, a vegetarian diet was also an important predictor of future PMH and
MHP in Chinese students when other lifestyle choices, age, gender, and
underlying mental health were taken into account. In a multigroup model that
included gender- and age-matched samples of students from Germany and China,
certain lifestyle choices—physical activity, smoking, and social rhythm
disturbances—were predictors of future MVP and/or PMG, even when controlled for
age, sex, and baseline mental health.
The smoking lifestyle
category included several individuals who reported specific phobias, symptoms
of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, and poor physical health
(Table 4). The National Academy of Sciences recently reported a modest
statistical association between regular marijuana use and increased symptoms of
social anxiety. 43 The scientific literature is also consistent with evidence
that people with a single drinking lifestyle report depressive symptoms,18 and
people with depression who have a smoking lifestyle are more likely to report
symptoms of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, or specific phobias. 17
On the other hand, people with mental health problems may also be more likely
to use legal or studied correlation, rather than causation, and our results
should be interpreted with caution.
Third, we found that
risk factors for depression during the pandemic differed significantly from
previous populations, suggesting that the pandemic has strengthened the
relationship between lifestyle and mental health. Using variance and individual
fixed effects regression, we showed that changes in physical activity, sleep,
social interaction, screen time, and depression were statistically significant
(P < 0.001) compared with changes in the previous cohort. Second, we can
link biometric measures of physical activity and sleep with measures of mental
health and social distancing.
When we look at
specific risk factors, we find that life behavior changes are more strongly
associated with depression during the pandemic than in previous cohorts. In
Germany, there is currently no data on an association between multiple risk
factors associated with lifestyle, mental disorders, and self-reported health
status that is representative of the general population. Lifestyle risk factors
such as unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, and consumption of legal and
illegal substances are associated with the development of a number of
non-communicable diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Additional factors for
a healthy lifestyle include a safe and peaceful environment, optimal sleep,
anti-stress and enjoyable activities, social connections/supports, and mental
health. I believe that physical therapy should be at the forefront of
lifestyle changes to improve health, especially physical activity. From tending
your garden to running a marathon, even the simplest exercise can make a big
difference in your quality of life. Positive lifestyle changes do not replace
medication or psychological therapy, but rather are things that people can take
on their own in addition to treatment.
We did not ask participants whether they performed their activities alone or with others, a factor that influences the relationship between life choices and mental health, especially in men.