The Real Happy Pill

by Anders Hansen

  Your body’s stress response improves as you become more physically fit. Exercise teaches your body not to overreact to stress.

  When the thought “Uh-oh, we’re gonna crash!” hits you during a sudden bout of turbulence on a plane, it’s the amygdala, quick as a flash, that puts your body on red alert—you’re in fight-or-flight mode, with a racing heart, a surge of anxiety, or even a panic attack. The frontal lobe cools those feelings down with logic: “It was only an air pocket, and I’ve had this happen before. We didn’t crash then, so why would we crash now?”

  There is a constant tug-of-war going on between the amygdala and the frontal lobe, and not only during stressful times. Just like there’s a balance between the amygdala and the hippocampus, there is a balance between the amygdala and the frontal lobe, and it can differ from person to person.

  The reason some people are more susceptible to anxiety depends to a high degree on their amygdala signaling fear when there’s no cause for it, while their frontal lobe is unable to push back and inhibit this predilection. Consequently, those people tend to see danger and potential catastrophes everywhere and walk around in a constant state of stress and foreboding.

  Stress shrinks the thinking brain

  Stress doesn’t just shrink the hippocampus; it seems to have an identical effect on the frontal lobe. Indeed, parts of the frontal lobe are smaller in individuals with very anxious personalities. It could almost be considered as adding insult to injury! The longer the stress continues, the more the brain feeds on itself, and the worse the brakes work. Those suffering from chronic stress are most in need of their hippocampus and the frontal lobe, which don’t function optimally for them.

  When the amygdala sounds the alarm at every turn and the frontal lobe is unable to balance this out, we start to overreact to stuff that seems trivial. “When I said good morning to my boss this morning, she answered me a bit tersely. She probably doesn’t like me. I must have done something wrong. I’m useless and I’ll probably get fired soon.” If the frontal lobe had stepped in properly, it would have helped gauge the situation more clearly: “My boss might have been a bit crabby this morning, but who isn’t sometimes? Maybe she didn’t sleep well.”

  When the frontal lobe becomes more active, we seem to become calmer and less stressed, and it becomes easier to withstand the anxiety generated by the amygdala. It has been possible to increase this activity by using magnetic field stimulation on the frontal lobe, simmering down the whole stress response.

  In other words, strengthening the frontal lobe—the “thinking” part of the brain—is crucial if you want to put a damper on stress. Since this is a book about how exercise affects your brain, you might have already figured out that physical activity will strengthen your frontal lobe as well as your hippocampus. In fact, the frontal lobe and the hippocampus are the two areas of the brain that are helped the most when you move your body.

  What effect does training have on the frontal lobe?

  How does the frontal lobe become strong when you train? Well, in lots of ways! The frontal lobe receives more blood and works better as soon as you exercise, because blood flow in the brain increases when you’re physically active. Over the long term, new blood vessels are created in the frontal lobe, improving the supply of blood and oxygen while at the same time removing more waste products.

  Increased blood flow and new blood vessels are just the beginning. Today, we know that regular physical activity creates a closer connection between the frontal lobe and the amygdala, which enables the frontal lobe to control the amygdala more effectively—much like a teacher has a better grip on a class when he or she is present in the classroom, instead of trying to oversee things from another location.

  Not only that, the frontal lobe also shows some long-term growth thanks to regular physical activity, a finding that surprised many in the field. It is a proven discovery, not merely an assumption. When the sizes of the frontal lobes of healthy adults were measured at regular intervals as they took hour-long walks, the measurements indicated that the brain’s outer covering, the cerebral cortex, seemed to develop further. It seems incredible that we can measure how our frontal lobe can get bigger just by taking walks!

  Everybody knows that working out leads to bigger muscles, but you probably weren’t aware that it also makes the more sophisticated part of the brain—the part that separates us from other animals—develop further. However, there is a catch: you must hang in there, continually exercising, and never give up! The frontal lobe won’t acquire more favorable conditions to better control the amygdala overnight; it could take months. Even if training alleviates stress straight away, there’s all the more reason to persevere.

  You won’t appreciate the full benefits on your general well-being and stress tolerance until after a few months of sustained exercise. But you will notice them in many ways because the effects of lowered activity of the brain’s stress response go much deeper than simply being able to handle stress better. Research also indicates that a person’s self-confidence gets a boost when activity in the brain’s stress response area—the HPA-axis—is lowered. Self-confidence is a trait that is linked to stress and anxiety, among other things.

  Are medications too effective?

  There are medications available for treating stress and anxiety that provide quick relief. You’ve probably heard of some, if not all of them: Diazepam, Oxazepam, Rohypnol, and Xanax. The problem with these drugs is not that they are ineffective, since stress and anxiety often subside soon after the drugs have been ingested. Rather, the issue is that they work too well.

  The brain is programmed to seek out stress relief, which is why pills that ensure immediate shelter from anxiety and that bestow a sense of calm are enormously tempting. The risk is that your brain will scream for these medications once you’ve tried them once. Furthermore, the brain tends to adapt quickly, so after only a short course of treatment, brain chemistry can change, and what provided effective relief at first is no longer enough. The dose needs to be increased to deliver the same effect, at which point you run the risk of becoming addicted.

  Besides the aforementioned drugs, there is another substance that has an amazing ability to turn off feelings of stress and anxiety, and it carries with it a major risk of dependency. That substance is alcohol. Alcohol is extremely effective at quickly lowering the stress response. In fact, there are few, if any, other substances that are comparable to alcohol’s power to provide relief from stress and anxiety. Anyone who has ever drunk wine or spirits when he or she felt anxious knows exactly what I’m talking about—a few minutes is all it takes for all the worry to vanish.

  Alcohol and anxiolytic drugs have such similar effects that many anxiolytics reproduce “dry drunk” syndrome in people. Their common denominator is that they both target the same system in the brain—the GABA.

  Your stress extinguisher

  Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an amino acid whose purpose is to calm the brain and act as a fire extinguisher to enable brain cells to suppress their activities. Once the brain’s activities are calmed, feelings of stress disappear. Consequently, GABA activation provides quick and effective stress relief, exactly as if you were drinking alcohol or taking anxiolytics.

  What is cool about GABA is that it isn’t just activated by alcohol and pills; it’s also activated by movement (i.e., exercise). Walking yields a certain effect, but the best results come from running or biking. Today we know that sustained physical exertion causes GABA activity to ramp up, especially in areas of the brain situated below the cerebral cortex. It’s from this area that a lot of stress originates. That GABA activity increases there as well means that training strikes at the very heart of the stress.

  ANATOMY OF STRESS

  There is a physical connection through several nerve pathways between the frontal lobe and the amygdala. Today, we believe that the better the pathways are at transmitting information, the better the frontal lobe acts as a damper on the amygdala to suppress
feelings of stress and anxiety.

  We can look at the nerve pathways as stress and anxiety’s true anatomy, and the physical coupling of your rational, thinking brain and your reptilian brain. The magnitude of anxiety and stress problems appears to be associated with how thick these pathways are. Thick nerve paths are better at transmitting signals between the different areas of the brain, and a thick pathway means that the frontal lobe is more effective at controlling the amygdala. In fact, current modern medical technology allows us to measure the thickness of the neural pathways. One of the most significant pathways between the amygdala and the frontal lobe is called uncinate fasciculus (UF), which measures between 4 and 5 cm (1.57 to 1.96 inches) in length. Upon examining people suffering from what is commonly called Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), it has been shown that their UP path is less efficient at transmitting signals. In all likelihood, this means that their frontal lobe has less ability to act as a brake on the amygdala, which leads to anxiety and stress.

  “Nanny neurons”

  It is probably GABA that causes the paradox of training’s effect on the brain. As you will see in the upcoming chapter Jog your memory, exercise leads to the creation of new brain cells, and new brain cells are like new people (i.e., small children) in that they are extremely active. To get a three-year-old to sit calmly is just about impossible. It’s the same for young brain cells, which are always active and which like to send signals to other cells without any prompting from their surroundings. They do as they please. This might seem kind of cute, but easily revved-up brain cells are bad news from the standpoint of stress because they can create feelings of anxiety. Anyone who experiences a lot of stress and anxiety might prefer to have calm brain cells that don’t fire off at will.

  What is remarkable is that while training causes new, hyperactive cells to form, which should bring about more stress and anxiety, you become calm instead. This is probably because some of the new cells created through exercise are GABA cells, which, instead of going out of control, help to inhibit overactivity in newborn cells.

  In popular science articles, these GABA cells are sometimes called nanny neurons, which suggests that their role is to calm other young brain cells. The soothing influence of those nanny neurons on their environment causes the entire brain to settle down. It appears that if you work out, you can create more nanny neurons to effectively inhibit activity—and therefore stress levels—in the brain. “And where do these nanny neurons form?” you may ask yourself. Animal testing has shown that they form primarily in an area of the hippocampus that is important in regulating emotions and inhibiting anxiety. Even there, exercise takes aim at the heart of stress and anxiety.

  YOUR MUSCLES ARE A STRESS TREATMENT PLANT

  Scientists genetically manipulated some mice so they were born with more developed muscles, and they seemed to be more or less immune to stress. Each attempt to worry the animals with bright lights and loud noises failed—they appeared to have nerves of steel. What was in the muscles that protected the mice from stress? Well, there is something in muscles that neutralizes a metabolite called kynurenine, which is caused by stress.

  The stress metabolite kynurenine can be dangerous for the brain, but with assistance from the muscles it is neutralized and thus prevented from entering the brain. It’s very likely that this helped make the mice completely impervious to stress. The same mechanism for neutralizing the stress metabolite is present in human muscles, as well. This suggests that muscles are able to work as a type of treatment plant to remove damaging stress triggers. In the same way that the liver purifies blood by removing toxic substances, muscles protect the brain.

  If muscles can neutralize an important stress substance, then it’s easy to infer that we could become better at dealing with stress by training our muscles. While a lot points to that conclusion since the muscled mice appeared resistant to stress, we don’t have firm answers yet as to how big the impact would be on us humans.

  Even strength is good for stress

  The experiment with the muscled mice is even more exciting because it is one of the first instances where it has been possible to show how strength training by itself can be good for combating stress. Scientists have often focused their attention on the effects of aerobic training, but in this case, it’s all about our muscles’ stress-busting potential. So, can we conclude from these findings that we should rely on strength training alone to protect ourselves against stress? No, absolutely not. Even taking this into account, it’s better to vary the type of physical activity you engage in and incorporate both strength and cardiovascular training.

  Anxiety is the price we pay for our intelligence.

  WHY DO WE WORRY?

  The body’s built-in stress and anxiety mechanisms are there to increase our chances for survival. At the same time, living and surviving in today’s society is easier than it was in any other time in history. Most of us don’t need to worry about encountering danger, not having enough food, or not having a roof over our head, so it might seem contradictory that we still experience such high levels of stress and anxiety. We should all be walking around, calm and serene. Why aren’t we?

  You’ll find the answer in our past. Picture two groups of your ancestors on the savanna. One group is contented, taking it easy, scratching themselves between their toes, and feeling that everything will turn out just fine. “Mañana, mañana.” The other group is dissatisfied and worried. “Do we have enough to eat? What if the weather turns bad? We may not find any more zebras or antelopes to hunt—let’s go out and fill the larder to be on the safe side.”

  Which group do you think had the biggest odds of living a long life? I’d place my bet on the anxious group for sure. The fact that we experience anxiety and stress has helped us a great deal in planning for the future, and it has increased our chances of survival. It is not nature playing a nasty prank on us when we feel stressed out and anxious; it’s a survival mechanism that allowed our ancestors to forge ahead. This mechanism doesn’t fit our present-day life very well, but it’s still there in us whether we like it or not. And it does explain why training is so beneficial in combating stress and anxiety: being physically active back in the day meant hunting for food or running away from danger—in other words, doing something to survive. So when we run on the treadmill, our brain interprets this as an activity that increases our chance of survival, which in turn relieves our stress and anxiety.

  A more philosophical spin would be to assert that our anxiety is the direct outcome of our intelligence. Having the ability to plan the future and to think of how it might turn out enables us to worry about things we’d prefer to avoid. That is how humans are unique. Our stress response can start now if we begin to brood about what could happen at work next week, without it being a real threat at this very moment. The ability to anticipate danger also means that we can plan on how to avoid it and worry about it before it becomes a fait accompli. Anxiety is the price we pay for our intelligence.

  TACKLE ANXIETY FROM DIFFERENT SIDES

  Are you beginning to see why training is extremely good for anyone suffering from stress and anxiety? It attacks the problem from several sides! Cortisol levels fall after each training session and won’t rise as much the next time. The hippocampus and the frontal lobe—the stress response’s brake pedals—strengthen and become more efficient at inhibiting the amygdala/anxiety engine. Activity in the brain’s GABA brake system is enhanced with more nanny neurons, and the muscles’ ability to neutralize the stress substance increases. All this takes place simultaneously.

  In reality, it’s difficult to tease the different mechanisms apart and to figure out how much anxiety inhibition is due to, say, decreased cortisol levels and how much of it is because of GABA. But if we combine all the mechanisms and look at the end result—which is what is truly interesting, after all—there’s no doubt that exercise and physical training are fantastic antidotes to stress, maybe even the very best!

  Teenage angst no morer />
  The number of teenagers seeking psychiatric help for stress and anxiety has risen steadily over the past few years. From a biological standpoint, teenage anxiety is nothing exceptional. The areas of the brain that dampen stress and anxiety, including the frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex, are the last to mature. They are not fully developed in a teenager; in fact, they’re not completely mature until about twenty-five years of age. However, areas that create stress, like the amygdala, are often fully developed in a seventeen-year-old. With the anxiety trigger in full working order while the anxiety inhibitor is not, the teenage years are a period rife with mood swings, impulsivity, and anxiety.

  Exercise and athletic training are fantastic antidotes to stress, maybe the very best!

  Still, exercise can have a huge impact even on teenagers’ feelings of stress and anxiety. A study in Chile was conducted on two hundred healthy ninth-graders hailing from a vulnerable area of Santiago, the country’s capital. Chile had only recently begun to suffer from western-style diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and scientists wanted to see if it was possible to reverse that trend with lifestyle changes. They also wanted to check if regular training would influence the youth’s well-being and self-confidence.

  At the end of the ten-week program, the tests revealed that the training had not only produced great fitness results, but also improved the teenagers’ confidence and sense of well-being. Furthermore, what stood out was the effect the program had on their stress and anxiety levels, which had fallen significantly. The teenagers felt much calmer, less anxious, and more self-confident.

  Less stressed-out and less cynical

  Do you think that the anxiety you feel has nothing to do with teenage angst? In a study to find out why some people have heart attacks, and how stress might be involved, over three thousand Finnish men were asked to answer questions about their lifestyle. A summary of the results showed that the men who exercised at least twice a week had fewer issues with stress and anxiety; this is the same pattern that had been found in Chile. Those who trained were also less prone to aggression and had a less cynical outlook on life.