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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old One" data-source="post: 2627050" data-attributes="member: 83">Actually, yes.Snipped from a medical article on exercise and stress:"It improves blood flow to the brain, bringing sugars and oxygen, which may be needed when you are thinking intensely. When you think hard, the neurons of your brain function more intensely. As they do this, they build up toxic waste products, which cause foggy thinking in the short term, and can damage the brain in the long term. By exercising you speed the flow of blood through your brain, moving these waste products faster. You also improve this flow so that even when you are not exercising, waste is eliminated more efficiently. It can cause release of chemicals called endorphins into the blood stream. These give you a feeling of happiness and well-being.Muscle tension increases during stress, and can cause a wide array of stress-related musculoskeletal problems, as well as general feelings of fatigue, and mental and emotional stress. Physical activity, on the other hand, leads to muscle relaxation. A feeling of physical relaxation characterizes a good workout's afterglow. After working hard, muscles relax. One study measuring the electrical activity of muscle found that activities such as walking, jogging and bicycling decrease muscle tension by more than 50 percent for up to 90 minutes after exercise. Physical relaxation translates into mental relaxation as well. This exercise afterglow of relaxation is an important part of exercise's anti-stress value for many people.Rhythmic exercises such as walking, running, rowing and swimming increase alpha-wave activity in the brain. The electrical activity of the brain can be monitored in the laboratory using an instrument called an electroencephalogram (EEG). Alpha waves are associated with a calm mental state, such as that produced by meditation or chanting. The rhythmic breathing that occurs during some forms of exercise also contributes to an increase in alpha-wave activity. Rhythmic activity performed to music may be stress-relieving in other ways as well.Some research suggests that regular exercise of moderate intensity may provide a sort of dress rehearsal for stress. Several studies have found that people who exercise regularly have a less physical response to laboratory stressors, such as difficult mental arithmetic tests. Other studies have found that physically fit subjects recover more quickly than sedentary peers from stressors such as cold exposure or emotional frustration. Your response to a session of moderately vigorous exercise resembles your response to stress--elevated metabolic rate, cardiac output, energy substrate levels, muscle tension, stress hormones, etc. Regular exercise may "train " the body to cope with and recover more quickly from emotional stress, as well as exercise stress."I find everything above to be very true...I can really tell the difference in my mental acuity if I go more than a couple of days without exercise...my mind isn't as sharp, I become more irritable and snap at people much more readily.~ OO</blockquote>

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