Chronic diseases are major killers in the modern era. Physical inactivity is a primary cause of most chronic diseases. The initial third of the article considers: activity and prevention definitions; historical evidence showing physical inactivity is detrimental to health and normal organ functional capacities; cause vs. treatment; physical activity and inactivity mechanisms differ; gene-environment interaction [including aerobic training adaptations, personalized medicine, and co-twin physical activity]; and specificity of adaptations to type of training. Next, physical activity/exercise is examined as primary prevention against 35 chronic conditions [Accelerated biological aging/premature death, low cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max), sarcopenia, metabolic syndrome, obesity, insulin resistance, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, coronary heart disease, peripheral artery disease, hypertension, stroke, congestive heart failure, endothelial dysfunction, arterial dyslipidemia, hemostasis, deep vein thrombosis, cognitive dysfunction, depression and anxiety, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, balance, bone fracture/falls, rheumatoid arthritis, colon cancer, breast cancer, endometrial cancer, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, polycystic ovary syndrome, erectile dysfunction, pain, diverticulitis, constipation, and gallbladder diseases]. The article ends with consideration of deterioration of risk factors in longer-term sedentary groups; clinical consequences of inactive childhood/adolescence; and public policy. In summary, the body rapidly maladapts to insufficient physical activity, and if continued, results in substantial decreases in both total and quality years of life. Taken together, conclusive evidence exists that physical inactivity is one important cause of most chronic diseases. In addition, physical activity primarily prevents, or delays, chronic diseases, implying that chronic disease need not be an inevitable outcome during life.

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Lack of exercise is a major cause of chronic diseases

Effects of physical exercise on anxiety, depression, and sensitivity to stress: a unifying theory.

Persistence of individual differences in animal behavior in reactions to various environmental challenges could reflect basic divergences in temperament, which might be used to predict details of adaptive response. Although studies have been carried out onfear and anxiety in various species, including laboratory, domestic and wild animals, no consistent definition offearfulness as a basic trait of temperament has emerged. After a classification of the events that may produce a state of fear, this article describes the great variability in behavior and in physiological patterns generally associated with emotional reactivity. The difficulties of proposing fearfulness - the general capacity to react to a variety of potentially threatening situations - as a valid basic internal variable are then discussed. Although there are many studies showing covariation among the psychobiological responses to different environmental challenges, other studies find no such correlations and raise doubts about the interpretation offearfulness as a basic personality trait. After a critical assessment of methodologies used in fear and anxiety studies, it is suggested that discrepancies among results are mainly due to the modulation of emotional responses in animals, which depend on numerous genetic and epigenetic factors. It is difficult to compare results obtained by different methods from animals reared under various conditions and with different genetic origins. The concept offearfulness as an inner trait is best supported by two kinds of investigations. First, an experimental approach combining ethology and experimental psychology produces undeniable indicators of emotional reactivity. Second, genetic lines selectedfor psychobiological traits prove useful in establishing relationships between behavioral and neuroendocrine aspects of emotional reactivity. It is suggested that fearfulness could be considered a basic feature of the temperament of each individual, one that predisposes it to respond similarly to a variety of potentially alarming challenges, but is nevertheless continually modulated during development by the interaction of genetic traits of reactivity with environmentalfactors, particularly in the juvenile period. Such interaction may explain much of the interindividual variability observed in adaptive responses.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3036241.pdf

Fear and fearfulness in animals.

Millions of Americans suffer from clinical depression each year. Most depressed patients first seek treatment from their primary care providers. Generally, depressed patients treated in primary care settings receive pharmacologic therapy alone. There is evidence to suggest that the addition of cognitive-behavioral therapies, specifically exercise, can improve treatment outcomes for many patients. Exercise is a behavioral intervention that has shown great promise in alleviating symptoms of depression. The current review discusses the growing body of research examining the exercise-depression relationship that supports the efficacy of exercise as an adjunct treatment. Databases searched were Medline, PsycLit, PubMed, and SportsDiscus from the years 1996 through 2003. Terms used in the search were clinical depression, depression, exercise, and physical activity. Further, because primary care physicians deliver important mental health services to the majority of depressed patients, several specific recommendations are made regarding counseling these patients on the adoption and maintenance of exercise programs.

/pdf/the-benefits-of-exercise-for-the-clinically-depressed-4ek3t09fp0.pdf

The Benefits of Exercise for the Clinically Depressed

This article critically reviews the evidence that exercise is effective in treating depression in adults. Depression is recognised as a mood state, clinical syndrome and psychiatric condition, and traditional methods for assessing depression (e.g. standard interviews, questionnaires) are described. In order to place exercise therapy into context, more established methods for treating clinical depression are discussed. Observational (e.g. cross-sectional and correlational) and interventional studies of exercise are reviewed in healthy adults, those with comorbid medical conditions, and patients with major depression. Potential mechanisms by which exercise may reduce depression are described, and directions for future research in the area are suggested. The available evidence provides considerable support for the value of exercise in reducing depressive symptoms in both healthy and clinical populations. However, many studies have significant methodological limitations. Thus, more data from carefully conducted clinical trials are needed before exercise can be recommended as an alternative to more traditional, empirically validated pharmacological and behavioural therapies.

https://web.colby.edu/essheets/files/2013/06/Exercise-and-Clinical-Depression-Brosse-et-al.pdf

Exercise and the treatment of clinical depression in adults: recent findings and future directions.

Regional changes in concentrations of brain norepinephrine [NE] and its metabolites after chronic exercise have not been described for exercise protocols not confounded by other stressors. We examined levels of [NE], 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol [MHPG], and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol [DHPG] in the frontal cortex, hippocampus, pons-medulla, and spinal cord after 8 wk of exercise. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (N = 36) were randomly assigned to three conditions: 1) 24-h access to activity wheel running (WR), 2) treadmill running (TR) at 0 degrees incline for 1 h.d-1 at 25-30 m.min-1, or 3) a sedentary control group (C). Levels (nmol.g-1) of [NE], [MHPG], and [DHPG] were assayed by high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Planned contrasts (P < 0.05) indicated that exercise training increased succinate dehydrogenase activity (mmol cytochrome C reduced.min-1.g-1 wet weight) in soleus muscle for TR compared with WR or C. [NE] was higher in the pons-medulla and spinal cord for both TR and WR compared with C. [DHPG] was higher in the pons-medulla for TR compared with C, and [MHPG] was higher in the frontal cortex and in the hippocampus for TR compared with C. Our results suggest that treadmill exercise training is accompanied by brain noradrenergic adaptations consistent with increased metabolism of NE in areas containing NE cell bodies and ascending terminals, whereas treadmill running and wheel running are accompanied by increases in levels of NE in the areas of NE cell bodies and the spinal cord, independently of an exercise training effect.

Brain norepinephrine and metabolites after treadmill training and wheel running in rats

Increased Open Field Locomotion and Decreased Striatal GABAA Binding After Activity Wheel Running

Open-field behavior is not related to treadmill performance in exercising rats

We examined the predictive relationship between pre-competition state anxiety and subsequent race performance among male and female professional athletes participating in the Tour de France and Tour de France Feminin bicycle races. Our results differed for men and women. Male cyclists reporting high self-confidence and low state anxiety performed better than their competitors reporting high state anxiety and low self-confidence. Female cyclists who reported high self-confidence performed worse than their competitors reporting low self-confidence. Departure of pre-race state anxiety, from a self-reported anxiety level experienced prior to a previous best performance, was predictive of poorer performance independently of each female athlete's absolute level of pre-race anxiety. Our results are partly consistent with a relaxation model of enhanced performance for the men and Hanin's Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning model for the women. Experimental and applied interventions for managing anxiet...

Andrea L. Dunn

Papers

Brain norepinephrine and metabolites after treadmill training and wheel running in rats

Increased Open Field Locomotion and Decreased Striatal GABAA Binding After Activity Wheel Running

Open-field behavior is not related to treadmill performance in exercising rats

Anxiety and Performance on the Tour de France and Tour de France Feminin

Social Support for Physical Activity Measure