Medicine for the mind: how exercise improves your mental health.

The person making that statement is not a fitness expert promoting an exercise video, but California psycbotherapist and author Judy Tatelbaum. She has dedicated her life and private practice to working with people who suffer intense losses and acute traumas. Tatelbaum's goal is to help people heal from their crises. In her book You Don't Have to Suffer: A Handbook for Moving Beyond Life's Crises she cites exercise as one of the very important "tools for healing" that hurting people can utilize.

It is well known that exercise results in many physical benefits, such as improving the operating efficiency of various body parts (muscles, lungs, circulatory system, and heart), aiding in digestion, cutting down on bone mineral loss associated with aging, and lowering stress levels. Less known is the fact that a sound exercise program also improves mental health. Here are some ways in which exercise is medicine for the mind.

Exercise Boosts Memory

Most people have had the frustrating experience of forgetting where they placed their keys or where they parked the car. Such experiences often lead people to conclude that their memory is weakening. However, research reveals that exercise jogs" the mind. A weak and inefficient cardiovascular system has a detrimental effect on memory. Studies show that adults who exercise aerobically increase significant amounts of blood flow to the brain, which in turn leads to better memory.

In one study on the effects of exercise on mental performance, researchers randomly placed volunteers, who ranged in age from 55 to 70, into three groups. One group did aerobic exercise in the form of walking three times a week for 45 minutes. A second group did easy calisthenics. The third group did not exercise. At the beginning of the study all three groups were similar in terms of oxygen consumption, level of physical fitness, memory, and mental dexterity. However, at the end of the study the oxygen consumption of the people in the aerobics group was substantially higher than that of the other two groups. Over a four-month period, mean scores for the aerobics group improved in five out of seven tests for memory and mental dexterity, while the other two showed no major change.

Exercise Builds Self-esteem

After five years of marriage, Kim, 31, returned home to an empty house. "My husband, without warning, had walked out on me. He took all of our belongings and emptied our bank accounts. I was in shock. I was sure it was somehow all my fault. My self-esteem hit bottom," she recalls. Depressed, Kim turned to food for solace. "I totally lost control of my eating habits. The more I ate, the more weight I gained, eventually carrying 230 pounds on my small five-foot-three-inch body." A friend urged Kim to begin an exercise program. She joined an aerobics class and became more careful about her diet. Positive results began to emerge almost immediately.

"My weight began to drop, and the exercise turned out to be a great stress reducer, too," Kim says. "As my body got lighter, so did my mood. My circle of friends expanded, and all of my self-doubt vanished. I lost nearly I 10 pounds and comfortably maintain my weight loss through exercise and proper eating habits."

Exercise Lifts Depression

While all people get the blues at one time or another, some individuals experience intense depression for prolonged periods of time. Left unresolved, depression can sap energy, suppress the libido, hinder the ability to concentrate, produce sleep disorder, and hamper enjoyment in life. One effective remedy for depression is to literally sweat it out.

"Exercise is a fabulous way to relieve depression," says Dr. Dennis Gersten, M.D., a San Diego psychiatrist in private practice. "Aerobic exercise, such as walking, running, swimming, or bicycling, chemically affects your brain in ways that can reverse the effects of even a major depression."

Exercise Eases the Pain of Grief

Exercise is also medicine for the mind when there has been a loss caused by separation, divorce, or death. Consider the example of Dorothy, a California mother who explains how the simple act of walking helped her deal with the death of her daughter.

"Walking has helped me avoid depression and has kept me sane after my beautiful daughter was killed last year. Walking has allowed me to process my grief and anguish. I just got off the floor and did it. Even on days when I wanted to curl up and die, I walked. I celebrated my sixtieth birthday in December by walking in the Honolulu Marathon, and I figur-e I saved thousands of dollars on therapy."

Exercise Increases Mental Alertness

Even moderate exercise works to stimulate the brain. That's what one study at Duke University revealed. Researchers put half of a group of sedentary people ranging in age from the mid-20s to early 60s on a walking or jogging program three times a week for 1 0 weeks. At the end of the program, when the active group was compared to the nonactive group, the active group reported more mental alertness and vigor,

Another study, published in the British Medical Journal, demonstrated that what you do to keep your body fit may also tone your mind. A look inside the arteries of nearly 5,000 people in the Netherlands (ages 55 to 94) along with written tests taken by the people in the study group led researchers to conclude that often it's not age but arteries that are at the root of mental decline. The physical and mental tests showed that people with artery disease had lower mental performance than did people whose arteries were clean-regardless of age.

Exercise Heightens Mental Motivation

A good exercise program not only strengthens the body but also strengthens the mind, preparing it to accept and overcome life's major challenges. Consider Amanda, a New York City resident, who says, "Fitness saved my life." She was 15 when advanced breast cancer was discovered in her mother. "My dad, an orthopedic surgeon, was so devastated by the prognosis that he suffered a fatal heart attack while operating on a patient. A year later my mom died." Since Amanda was an only child with no surviving family, she began living with her best friend:s family. The loss of both parents took an enormous toll on the teenager. "Soon I was 30 pounds overweight and felt miserable."

However, she saw people jogging in the park and heard runners say that exercise changed their lives. She began jogging. Starting by running less than a block, she was soon doing six miles, then eight, then a marathon. A decade later she still jogs regularly and says: "Running literally saved my life. Running gave me self-esteem (I lost 30 pounds very quickly), and the strength and stamina to face what lay ahead. For me that was graduate school and then opening up my own company. Through fitness I learned there was nothing I could not achieve-really, absolutely nothing."

So if you're currently in an exercise program or considering,one, keep in mind that the gains are extremely comprehensive, thoroughly generating both physical and mental benefits. In their b6ok Your Vitality Quotient, authors Richard Earle, Ph.d., and David Imrie, M.D., declare: "People who exercise regularly tend to sleep better, and use less sugar, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and other drugs. Above all, exercise makes you feel good about yourself. For most people, exercise is one of the most obvious self-respecting behaviors. Each time you jog, visit the gym, or play a game of squash, you are building your positive self-image -- a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual foundation for your growing self-esteem."