Why does your physical health affect your mental health and vice versa?

People often say laughter is the best medicine. This saying implies that your mood and mental health affects your physical health. Scientists know that, most of the time, your physical health can affect your mental health and vice versa, but why? What does that mean for us? Should we change our habits when we treat physically ill people to prevent mental decline and depression? Should we treat depression in a way that will prevent the patients physical health from deteriorating? Through my research I tried to answer these questions.

What is physical illness?

A physical illness is an illness that affects your bodies functions and deteriorates your ability to use your bodies natural function (i.e: muscles weaken, less mobility, etc.). Some examples of  physical illness could be cancer, Parkinsons disease or something even as small as the flu!

What is a mental illness?

A mental illness is and illness that affects your thinking, feeling or mood. Some examples of mental illness could be depression, bipolar disease, anxiety, eating disorders or even addictive habits (i.e: drugs, alcohol abuse, etc.)

Most people know that disease (life threatening or not) can go hand in hand with depression and mental illness. For some people that means that any illness is a double edged sword. Let’s use a patient who is suffering from cancer as an example. A doctor, depending on the patients life style, may be able to conclude that the cause of this cancer is stress. Extreme stress overtime can lower your bodies immune system response and cause a higher chance of high blood pressure, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. In multiple studies about depression it is found that stress can be the leading cause of depression in not only adolescents but adults. So maybe physical and mental health is not linked but two different side affects of one cause. This would mean that the patient has a higher risk of mental illness.

Scientists have found that keeping good physical health can positively affect your mental health. When you exercise your brain releases endorphins which makes you happy. Exercise also helps keep our bodies in top shape, preventing disease and illness. Eating healthy lowers your risk of obesity and type two diabetes and therefore keeps your blood sugar levels down. A study relates high blood sugar with a decrease in mental performance which in turn can lead to depression. So, again, I found that perhaps the disease is not directly related to the mental health, rather they are two different side affects of one cause.

Photo Credits to: Flickr Fit Approach

Finally I found that people with CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) meaning people with long term affects after receiving multiple concussions have a higher suicide rate. This issue was made known because of the increasing danger NFL players face due to the trauma caused to the brain during the game. Although CTE symptoms develop slowly they can affect your mental health drastically. Symptoms include difficulty in concentration, memory and impulsive behavior which often leads to depression. Depression is officially listed as a symptom of CTE. So because of the physical symptoms patients can’t mentally handle all the changes going on inside your brain. Not being able to do what you used to must be frustrating and could be a link between your physical and mental health.

So in conclusion I found that the reason why physical health often or always affects your mental health is because they have similar causes. Often bad physical health can cause an avalanche of negative emotions and/or behaviors that cause a decrease in mental health and can lead to depression or other common mental illnesses. Keeping good physical health will benefit you both physically and mentally and if you do get sick you should stay as positive as possible. Lowering your stress levels, enjoying each day to the fullest and laughing truly could be the best medicine after all!

 

Bibliography:

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).” Gale Science in Context, Gale, 2018. Science In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/FLNGWI316808253/SCIC?u=43riss&sid=SCIC&xid=7dc83b3d. Accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

“New Findings from Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the Area of Suicide Reported (Suicide Mortality Among Retired National Football League Players Who Played 5 or More Seasons).” Mental Health Weekly Digest, 14 Nov. 2016, p. 121. Science In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A469921021/SCIC?u=43riss&sid=SCIC&xid=27da1b9a. Accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

Grudnik, Lynn. “Vigorous exercise improves mental health.” Health Science, Spring 2009, p. 6. Science In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A259849132/SCIC?u=43riss&sid=SCIC&xid=59f0942d. Accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

Doskoch, Peter. “Happily ever laughter.” Psychology Today, July-Aug. 1996, p. 32+. Science In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A18440949/SCIC?u=43riss&sid=SCIC&xid=a57ac20b. Accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

Richman, Vita. “Stress.” The Gale Encyclopedia of Science, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, 5th ed., Gale, 2014. Science In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CV2644032152/SCIC?u=43riss&sid=SCIC&xid=612620a1. Accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

Bower, Bruce. “Weighing the causes of severe depression.” Science News, 14 Aug. 1993, p. 102. Science In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A13253317/SCIC?u=43riss&sid=SCIC&xid=98a52365. Accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

Bakalar, Nicholas. “Mind: High Blood Sugar and Memory.” New York Times, 20 Feb. 2018, p. D4(L). Science In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528156625/SCIC?u=43riss&sid=SCIC&xid=768be928. Accessed 12 Sept. 2018.

 

Reflection:

1. I asked my main question, but I got no result, so I researched things that I had heard affected your mental and physical health. I looked at how does stress affect us? Why do retired NFL players have a high suicide rate? How is exercise and healthy eating good for us? This led me to answers about how our brain works with our body and possible answers to my question. Although there was no conclusive answer I was able to make an educated Hypotheses through my question-based research.
2. I used Riversides online library for the first time and found that it was a very useful tool. I always dread science research because when you are scrolling through google search you never know if what you are getting is accurate information and even when it is, it can be difficult to understand because it might not be at my level of comprehension. That wasn’t a problem when I was using the Riverside library. I also used edublog for the first time. I have used it before, but I have never created a full post that included lots of the available tools. I learned how to embed a video and make my post look the way I wanted it to. I also used creative commons to find my picture.
3. I started by asking my question. But once I realized that the information I needed wasn’t going to be simple to find I started asking other questions that could lead me to my answer. Along the way I cited my sources and wrote notes so that when I had to write the post it would be easier. When I had all the information I needed I started writing my post on Word and then copied it to a new blog post. After, I added my bibliography, a picture and two videos and my last step was editing it so that it looked the way I wanted it to and made sure my information was displayed in a way that made sense.
4. Well because I used Riversides online Library the sources where much more reliable, but I still looked at the author/publisher and used my common sense when reading through the information. If something didn’t sound right, I decided to double check with another reliable website to make sure it was correct information. I used a citation generator (EasyBib) and filled in any blanks by looking carefully through the website.
5. Well next time I will be sure to save every few minutes because I few times I lost a paragraph or the picture I had inserted and had to start over, but I think over all the process went well and I was able to familiarize myself with my device and tools that I can use in other classes. I have already been able to use my new understanding of edublog and creative commons to help me in other classes.