The incidence of mental illness is increasing significantly.
The AOK report (2017) shows that the proportion of days missed from work due to depression, anxiety disorders and burnout has risen by almost 70 % in the last 10 years to 11.2 % of all days missed; in third place after musculoskeletal disorders (still in first place) and respiratory diseases.
Less frequent in active people and sport can alleviate symptoms.
At the very least, everyone in the population could know that the majority of musculoskeletal complaints could be prevented or at least reduced through sport and exercise. However, scientific data also clearly shows that mental illnesses – depression, anxiety disorders and burn-out syndrome – occur significantly less frequently in people who exercise and that symptoms can often be significantly improved through exercise, even if an illness has already occurred.
Mental illness usually seriously impairs social contacts within the family, with friends and colleagues and therefore has a much more drastic effect on those affected than pain, which is often amenable to pain therapy.
Trigger factor stress.
What all the above-mentioned mental illnesses have in common is that stressful situations can contribute significantly to their onset, whereby the increase in mental illnesses must certainly be seen as an indication of the increasing stress in our society. Everything is moving faster and faster, always being available, not being able to switch off even on vacation; the cell phone is always answering!
All right, so sport: but which, how often, how intensively?
In almost all studies on the influence of sport on mental illness, endurance training was used to investigate the influence of sport on depression, for example. In most cases, training was carried out 2 – 3 times a week for around 30 minutes per session. In terms of intensity, the results are clear:
You should train according to the lactate threshold concept, between LT1 and LT2; this is the only way to avoid counterproductive overloading – stressed people also tend to overexert themselves during sport!
What’s with the lactate, the concept has been outdated for a long time!
Not at all. Modern research indicates that lactate is an important messenger substance with which the muscle indicates to the organism that it is under strain. A small increase in lactate (around 1 mmol/l) results in a variety of positive reactions. Among other things: A widening, even a new formation of blood vessels in the stressed muscle and a stimulation of stem cells in the connective tissue. The positive effects of physical activity on the brain are also thought to be caused by lactate receptors in the brain. Without the increase in lactate, training success is marginal, as generations of sports scientists have shown.
The lactate rises with increasing exertion. From an increase of around 1.5 mmol/l, the organism becomes increasingly acidic, the pH value drops and the stress hormone cortisol (which is also elevated in depressed people) rises as a sign that the muscle is clearly overloaded. Now you should stop exercising, unless it’s a matter of life or death, the gold medal or world championship – ok maybe equivalent: the next point in the tennis match!
Above the 2nd lactate threshold, there is no longer any evidence of a positive effect of exercise on mental illnesses, which are at least favored by stress. Additional stress caused by sport should be avoided at all costs. After sport, it is better to feel better than before, which is usually the case for athletes who have trained in the correct lactate range.
Incidentally, the stress of overworking is the most common reason why people stop joining a gym, for example.
When the days get darker again, many people start to suffer from autumn/winter depression. Do something about it! But in the right stress (lactate) range!