Physical exercise prevents the risk of cardiovascular disease by inhibiting brain activity linked to stress, according to a study carried out on 50,000 volunteers.
- According to the study, participants who respected the physical activity recommendations established by the researchers had a 23% lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases compared to those who were less athletic.
- Above all, the volunteers who practiced the most sport tended to have “lower brain activity associated with stress”, thanks to a “boost” in the prefrontal cortex, involved in executive function and known to repress the centers of brain stress.
- Therefore, physical activity was even “about twice as effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with depression, probably due to the effects on stress-related activity of the brain,” according to the researchers. .
Beneficial for the heart, because beneficial for the brain. In a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiologya team of scientists has demonstrated that sport protects us against cardiovascular diseases – the leading cause of death in the world – in particular because it reduces brain activity linked to stress.
Less stress-related brain activity in athletes
To reach this conclusion, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, part of Harvard Medical School in Boston, United States, reviewed the medical records and other data of more than 50,000 adults at Mass General Brigham Biobank who responded to a physical activity survey. Among them, a group of 774 participants underwent brain imaging tests to assess stress-related signaling in the brain. Other variables were also taken into account, such as lifestyle and risk factors for coronary heart disease.
Over a median follow-up period of 10 years, 13% of participants developed cardiovascular disease. Unsurprisingly, those who had respected the physical activity recommendations established by doctors had a 23% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease compared to those who were less athletic.
But above all, the researchers found that the volunteers who practiced the most physical activity tended to have a “lower brain activity associated with stress”can we read in a communicated. And this, thanks to a “boost” in the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain involved in executive function (i.e. decision-making, impulse control, etc.) and known to repress the centers of brain stress.
Physical activity even more beneficial for the hearts of depressed people
Therefore, the benefit of sport on the heart was “considerably more important” in participants with very high stress-related brain activity, such as those who had pre-existing depression. “Physical activity was about twice as effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with depression, likely due to effects on stress-related activity of the brain”specifies cardiologist Ahmed Tawakol, lead author of the study.
If further research is needed to “prove causality”, this study would confirm the extent to which sport is a remedy in itself, both for the cardiovascular system and metabolism and the brain, by warding off depression and neurological disorders. It is hardly surprising that the High Authority for Health (HAS) considers physical activity to be “a full-fledged treatment” which should be “prescribed” by doctors.
As a reminder, the WHO estimates that adults aged 18 to 64 should spend at least 150 to 300 minutes per week in moderate-intensity endurance activity, or practice at least 75 to 150 minutes of endurance activity sustained intensity (or a combination of the two formulas).
