What is stress?

Dangerous situation - Hypothalamus send a signal to the

pituitary gland - sends a hormone to your adrenal glands - which
sends out cortisol(which makes your heart beat faster, blood to
muscles etc.), activates fight or flight response.
The activation of this system is because of the amygdala(fear
and aggression - emotional patterns).

Evolutionary explanation:
Makes sense that we have this because we have to avoid
dangerous situations.
In today’s society we don’t end up in as many dangerous
situations. Now we get scared often for things like talking in front
of an audience, this triggers the amygdala, but not nearly as much
as when we fear for our lives

Cortisol is a poison for the hippocampus

Hippocampus works as a counterbalance to amygdala(high level
of cortisol affects the balance between amygdala and
hippocampus).
Cells in hippocampus breaks down because of high levels of
cortisol(continued stress).
Leads to reduced/degenerated memory.
For example: trouble finding words, localization etc.

Run to reduce stress:

MIST-test - reaction to stress
Average answers correct to 80-90% of the questions - but you
only get 20-45% correct answers.
One group ride the bike for 30 min before the test.
Results showed that the bike group had lower levels of
cortisol(regardless if they were in shape or not).
So they could find their words easier.

Animal experiment with genetic manipulated mice that are born

with bigger muscles - immune to stress.

Frontal lobe/prefrontal cortex:(the largest of the brain’s structures.

They are mainly responsible for the higher cognitive functions)
Higher abstract thinking - slows stress down as well.
ANalytic abilities - logical thinking.
The more you stress - the less your frontal cortex can overpower
amygdalas fear.

Exercise outcomes:
Strengthens hippocampus - better memory
Strengthen prefrontal cortex - gets smarter(prefrontal cortex -
smaller in people who gets easily stressed thanks).
Because of BDNF(brain-derived neurotrophic factor)
How often should you work out? - ⅔ times/weeks. About 30 min.

Teenagers feel more stressed -why?

Prefrontal cortex/frontal cortex - not fully developed(since it act as
a balance to amygdala).
Fully developed at 25 years old.
Parts of that creates stress is fully developed.
Study in Chile - 200 healthy participants that were in 9th grade
exercised for ten weeks. Results showed that the participants felt
better, less stressed and less anxiety.
Same results in a study in Finland. Those who exercised 2-3
times per week had less anxiety and felt less stressed.

Medication vs. exercise:

Blumenthal
156 participants with depression.
One group for medication(zoloft), one exercised and one did both.
Results: all groups got amazing results and weren’t diagnosed
with depression anymore! (after four months).
After 6 months: those who choose to exercise didn’t fall back to
depression(8% fell back to depression).