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Physical
exercise is preventative against a plethora of ill-health conditions,
psychological and somatic, endowers a protective agency to safeguard against
illnesses whether intrinsic, environmental or age-related and provides a
scaffolding of health, well-being, cognitive-emotional robustness that equips
individuals to administer a variety of eventualities that fate may cast upon
them. The achievement of these ambitions may require both a re-consideration
and re-conceptualization of prevailing notions of ‘health behavior versus
health practice’.
Keywords: Exercise, Health, ill-health, Well-being,
Psychological, Somatic, Domains
INTRODUCTION
Using
twin-study empirical design, Böckerman et al. [1] have shown that unobserved
family and genetic factors drive the cross-sectional correlations between
schooling and many health measures, particularly in the case of
female subjects. Their within-MZ twin-study results for male subjects indicated
that high-school (or vocational/gymnasial) or lowest level tertiary education
reduces body mass index and use of medication. High school (or
vocational/gymnasial) or university graduated male subjects
also exercised more than male subjects who had completed primary
education only. Chronic stress and eventual depressive state are
conditions of ill-health that present a major cause of psychological and
somatic disability resulting serious public health problems. The unpredictable
chronic mild stress model offers an established
translationally-relevant condition for inducing behavioral symptoms commonly
associated with clinical depression, such as anhedonia, altered grooming
behavior, and learned helplessness in rodents whereby physiological (e.g.,
hypercortisolemia, hypertension) and neurological (e.g., anhedonia, learned
helplessness) expressions that are linked with depressiveness in the clinic and
these symptoms and biomarkers may be ameliorated through chronic, but not
acute, treatment with administration of SSRIs [2-5]. Lee et al. [6] subjected
rats to the unpredictable chronic mild stress condition, or control, over
eight weeks and then after four weeks introduced the treadmill running exercise
condition for half of these animals for four weeks. The exercise regime was
shown to alleviate the depressive symptoms, restoration of sucrose-drinking and
several biomarkers, including increased cell proliferation and decreased cell
death due to apoptosis.
All the participants in a qualitative
study of older adults (65-80 years) viewed a positive attitude as essential for
healthy ageing: the necessity was to pursue activity, physical (exercise) and psychological,
through otherwise sedentary activities such as reading and crosswords.
Expressions such as: “Getting out of the house”, “keeping busy”, or ‘following
a variety of interests’ were experienced as both important motivators and
descriptions of the elderly participants’ 'activeness'. Purposeful activities,
e.g. ‘still being engaged in paid or voluntary work’, ‘having caring
responsibilities’, or smaller incidental activities such as ‘helping neighbors’
or ‘walking for transport’ provided essential ingredients. These elderly
reported also adapting previous, often lifelong, activity preferences and
habits to their ageing bodies, or replacing them altogether with lower impact
activities such as walking, as well as adaptation to the physical limitations of
partners and friends which dictated the intensity and frequency of shared
activities, all of which underlines the social context of physical activity
[7]. Although caution is advised, Szabo et al. [8] have shown that a variety of
physical exercises, such as “spinning” also known as indoor-cycling, generated positive changes
in affective status after relatively short workouts, for example
positive affect increased while negative affect decreased
after both types of spinning workouts (with or without instructors). Exerted effort, measured through the heart
rate, did not differ between the two conditions. Nevertheless, the participants
enjoyed the instructor-led exercise sessions to a greater extent than
they did the self-regulated workouts.
Physical exercise prevents cell
senescence, and active individuals are at lower risk of developing certain
malignancies including cancer of the prostate and the colon, osteoporosis,
depression and dementia. Individuals who exercise regularly extend
their life expectancy by three to seven years [9]. Exercise was shown to
produce a direct and positive impact upon quality-of-life in patients suffering
from cancer, during and following medical intervention [10]. Arnold et al. [11]
observed that short-term exercise bouts, using a foot shock-free
treadmill exercise regimen, increased ageing-induced loss of
glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) receptor, GFR-α1, and tyrosine hydroxylase in the substantia
nigra of 18-month-old male Brown-Norway/Fischer 344 F1 hybrid
rats. In this regard, a critical role for mitochondrial turnover in preserving
muscle tissue during aging has been suggested whereby the cellular pathways
responsible for the regulation of mitochondrial turnover including biogenesis,
dynamics, and autophagy may become dysregulated
during aging resulting in the reduced clearance and accumulation of
damaged organelles within the cell with the consequence that with
mitochondrial quality compromised and homeostasis awaiting re-establishment,
myonuclear cell death is activated and muscular atrophy commences.
Joseph et al. [12] have described how acute and chronic exercise
ameliorate these cellular deficits thereby restoring mitochondrial turnover and
promoting a healthier mitochondrial pool that avails the preservation of muscle
tissue upon whose integrity the utilization of exercise is dependent. In aged
mice, retinal thickness and number of cells in the
ganglion cell layer of the naturally-aged mice were reduced compared
young control mice. Kim et al. [13] found that following treadmill exercise (5
to 12 m/min, 30 to 60 min/day, 3 days/week for 12 weeks) the retinas from the
aged mice showed carboxymethyllysine, 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine, and
nitrotyrosine immunostaining intensities were increased compared to young
control mice. Their aged exercise group exhibited significantly lower
CML levels and nitro-oxidative stress than their aged control group.
Advancing age is associated with a
decrease in several factors, such as cardiovascular fitness and cerebral blood
flow, modulating cognitive functioning that ultimately affects quality of
life. Cardiorespiratory fitness is a strong predictor of cardiovascular
disease and all-cause mortality, with increases in cardiorespiratory fitness
associated with corresponding decreases in risk for this type of cardiac
disease. Thus, the effects of exercise interventions upon the
myocardium and vascular system are dependent upon the frequency, intensity and
duration of the exercise. Wilson et al. [14] have reviewed this status:
(1) the relationship between exercise and cardiac re-modeling; (2)
the cardiac cellular and molecular adaptations in response to exercise, including
the examination of molecular mechanisms of physiological cardiac growth and
applying these mechanisms to identify new therapeutic targets to prevent or
reverse pathological re-modeling and heart failure; and (3) vascular
adaptations in response to exercise. Ageing is associated with a
progressive decline in cerebral blood flow [15, 16], generally linked with
cognitive functional decline [17-19]. Regular exercise has been shown to
improve cognitive function, and we hypothesize that this occurs through beneficial
adaptations in vascular physiology and improved neurovascular coupling [20].
Ogoh et al. [21] manipulated cerebral blood flow using hypercapnic gas to
observe whether or not elevated cerebral blow flow improved cognitive
functioning in a Stroop color-word test. Nevertheless, they found that changes
in cerebral blood flow were unlikely to have affected cognitive function during
exercise but that the observed improvements in cognition were likely due to
cerebral neural activation associated with the performance of exercise itself.
Physical exercise exerts a
positive impact on physical health through various different avenues,
for example, exercise has been shown to
affect positively cognitive performance based upon a relocation of
cortical activity which seems to contribute the development of brain
connectivity. Wollseiffen et al. [22] studied the effects of different types of
breaks (work-pauses) upon the cognitive performance and related cortical
activity among office-based employees. The working-day was organized such that
breaks were filled with exercise, resting or a usual break compared with a
control condition wherein employees continued working without any break.
Cognitive performance was assessed using the d2-R test, a test of attention,
and two commercially available cognitive tasks. Brain cortical activity was
recorded using electroencephalography before and after the breaks. Each
individual's mood was analyzed through the application of a profile of mood
state. Their results indicated a positive effect of a 3-min ‘boxing
intervention’ on cognitive performance, mirrored by a decrease in prefrontal
cortex activity. Although perceived psychological state was increased after the
usual break, this is reflected in neither cortical activity nor cognitive
performance. Since bike activity resulted also in an increase in brain
prefrontal regionα-2 activity, a positive effect
of exercise on neuro-cognitive performance was concluded. Similarly,
high-intensity interval training, as opposed to moderate-intensity continuous
training, performed in a real-world gym setting improves cardio-metabolic risk
factors and psychological health in physically inactive adults, as well as
ensuring greater adherence and compliance [23]. Following a six-week exercise
program, Wagner et al. [24] obtained an improvement of physical fitness in most
subjects, healthy young adults with regard to cytokine and BDNF integrity, and
a positive correlation between the degree of fitness improvement and
increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels. Increased levels of
biomarkers for BDNF, e.g. BDNF-positive cells and serum BDNF, are associated
with improved cognitive performance and psychological health [25-27]. Executive
functioning involves several of the highest levels of behavioral functions
peculiar to homo sapiens, including complex planning, working memory,
reasoning, task flexibility, abstract thinking, problem-solving and developing
empathy and attachment [28-31]. Moderate-intensity continuous exercise has been
found to promote acutely the facilitation of executive functioning likely
through the selective activation of neurophysiological and psychological
processes [32,33]. Tsukamoto et al. [34] studied the extent to which
high-intensity interval exercise impacted upon post-exercise executive
functioning immediately after and during post-exercise recovery in twelve
healthy male subjects using cycle ergometer with executive functioning assessed
by Stroop test, pre-exercise and post-exercise. Although the functional improvement
was equivalent for both high-intensity interval exercise and moderate-intensity
continuous exercise, the former improvement, concurrent with both physiological
and psychological changes, was sustained during the 30-min post-exercise
recovery in the former case whereas in the latter case functioning returned to
pre-exercise levels.
Physical exercise offers both ontogenetic
and epigenetic propensities that attest to benefits within several health
domains affecting neurobehavioral, brain regional, cellular and physiological
mechanisms. Psychological well-being, cognitive, emotional, motor, behavioral,
clinical, recuperative, epigenetic and health domains all make considerable
impact upon individuals’ propensity for and compliance with regular exercise
and physical activity and visa versa
throughout the lifespan development [35-49]. Generally, four types of
well-being are considered: (i) Hedonic well-being which consists of deriving
pleasure and happiness from different aspects of life (“feeling good”), (ii)
Eudaimonia which consists of a mature and actively virtuous life-style (“doing
good”), (iii) Wellness which consists of the absence of disease or infirmity
(“good physical health”), and (iv) Prosperity which consists of consisting of
success in endeavors and good fortune (“prosperity”). In contrast, ill-being
has been defined as the absence of health, happiness and prosperity due to
infirmity or physical disability, unhappy or dissatisfied, socially isolated or
alienated, unsuccessful or unfulfilled. Health has been described variously to
conform with a state of physical, mental and social well-being through which
individuals apply their own abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life,
live and work productively, fruitfully and constructively, with adequate
community contribution [41].
CONCLUSION
Physical exercise, whether partaken as
maintenance of prevailing health or acquiesced due to ill-health avoidance,
promotes well-being through: the restriction of negative affectivity to the
advantage of positivity, the promotion of functional and biomarker
manifestations during ageing and cellular senescence, the optimal performance
of cognitive tasks, including executive functioning, the advancement of
individuals’ ontogenetic and epigenetic propensities and the facilitation of
the various domains of psychological well-being thereby permitting individuals
to attain previously unrealized levels of empowerment. It is possible that
re-conceptualizing the efforts invested by individuals as the procurement of
health practices, rather than health behavior, captures the
emergent and contingent properties of individuals’ activities in those
particular situations [50] is critical to correct decision-making for the
assurance of well-being.
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