By Rafika Ghrawi | Staff Writer
University can be a stressful place for many individuals. This stress is due to students finding themselves with the pressure of adjusting to life on campus, exams, balancing relationships, and having to make important decisions for their future. Some students find themselves being able to cope better than others. However, stress, depression, and anxiety are common negative emotions that university students go through. In fact, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 31.4% of students suffer from some form of a mental health disorder within their first year of university.
To fully grasp the idea of this topic, we first need to determine what is meant by mental health. WHO defines mental health as a “state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her abilities, can cope with the normal stressors of life, can work productively, and can make contributions to his or her community.” And with so many university students suffering from mental health disorders, it is obvious that solutions to such problems are seldom discussed. Study shows that one of the best ways to maintain healthy mental health is not at all tedious: exercise.
Physical activity is very important for our personal health. It is good for maintaining a healthy weight and preventing chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. However, we don’t really talk about the significance of physical activity on our mental health. Several studies have shown that being physically active results in improved health outcomes. These results are consistent among university students, where a recent study showed a positive correlation between physical activity and mental health scores. People participating in high physical activity were 50% more likely to have better mental health, and the ones participating in moderate physical activity were 15% more likely to have better mental health. Does this mean we have to consistently go to the gym? Not at all. Actually, any form of physical activity is enough to be protective against mental health disorders.
Scientists have tried to explain the reason for this protective effect that physical activity seems to have on mental health disorders. One of the theories suggests that physical activity results in social engagement with peers, which seems to be the source of these positive outcomes. This type of support improves the mood of the student doing physical activity which in turn helps decrease mental health problems. This finding is not something new within the scientific community. However, evidence has been growing through multiple studies and the results of the effectiveness of physical activity have been consistent.
In our general modern lives, we are having a more sedentary lifestyle than previous generations, due to the advancement in technology. And this sedentary lifestyle could reduce our daily dose of physical activity. Thus, universities can act as a great source to promote physical activity among students. This could be useful not only for the sake of mental health, but for other positive health associations mentioned above. This can also be an easy and efficient way in terms of cost to help in managing mental health disorders. This can be done by promoting participation in university sports, having cycling lanes, and providing fitness facilities.
Although physical activity can better a person’s mental well-being, we cannot disregard the exceptional and extreme cases of some disorders, which rely on other sources to better their mental state. This shows how physical activity can never replace the roles of psychologists and psychiatrists; they remain the greatest source for mental health treatment.