Less than half of Canadians exercise to relieve stress

A research study out of McMaster University has found that only 40 per cent of Canadians exercise to cope with stress.

The researchers analyzed data from Statistics Canada's Canadian Community Health Survey of nearly 40,000 Canadians 15 and older. Of 13 coping behaviours or strategies polled, exercise was ranked eighth, meaning people were more likely to cope with stress by problem-solving; looking on the bright side, trying to relax, talking to others, blaming oneself, ignoring stress or praying, rather than being active.

"We know stress levels are high among Canadians, and that exercise is effective at managing stress and improving health and well-being, so the fact exercise is number eight and that less than half of the population use it is worrisome," said principal investigator John Cairney, a professor of family medicine, and psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences, at McMaster's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine.

The study, published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, also found that younger, single, more educated and more active adults as well as women were more likely to use exercise for stress release. As well, the individuals who reported using exercise to combat stress were more likely to endorse other positive coping strategies and less likely to use alcohol or drugs for coping.

Encouraging exercise, especially in groups identified as being less likely to use exercise to cope with stress, could potentially reduce overall stress levels and improve general health and well-being, said Cairney.

"Exercise as a coping strategy for stress can be a 'win-win' situation because there are both mental and physical health benefits."

How, exactly, does exercise make you less stressed out? Especially when exercise raises levels of the stress hormone, cortisol?

Exercise attacks stress in two ways, according to Matthew Stults-Kolehmainen, Ph.D., a kinesiologist at the Yale Stress Center. He told HuffPost Healthy Living that raising one's heart rate can actually reverse damage to the brain caused by stressful events: "Stress atrophies the brain - especially the hippocampus, which is responsible for a lot, but memory in particular. When you’re stressed, you forget things."

Exercise, by contrast, promotes production of neurohormones like norepinephrine that are associated with improved cognitive function, elevated mood and learning. And that can improve thinking dulled by stressful events - some research even shows how exercise can make you smarter.

In fact, many researchers posit that improved communication could be the basis of both greater reserves of the neurochemicals that help the brain communicate with the body and the body's improved ability to respond to stress. The American Psychological Association reporte

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[Exercise] forces the body's physiological systems - all of which are involved in the stress response - to communicate much more closely than usual: The cardiovascular system communicates with the renal system, which communicates with the muscular system. And all of these are controlled by the central and sympathetic nervous systems, which also must communicate with each other. This workout of the body's communication system may be the true value of exercise; the more sedentary we get, the less efficient our bodies in responding to stress.