Regular Exercise Could Lower Anxiety Risk by 60%

Anxiety disorders are pervasive in today’s society, and may affect up to 25% of adults. Functional medicine has long recognized exercise as a beneficial tool to help decrease anxiety symptoms, but there has been limited research on whether exercise can actually prevent the development of anxiety in the first place.

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry looked at the impact of regular exercise on the development of anxiety. In one of the largest population-wide epidemiological studies to be conducted across genders, Swedish researchers studied nearly 400,000 men and women who participated in the world’s largest long-distance cross-country ski race between 1989 and 2010, as well as non-skiiers from the general population.

The researchers found that the skiiers were 60% less likely to develop anxiety over the 21-year period compared to the non-skiiers. These results held even after individuals who were diagnosed with anxiety disorders within the first five years after being included in the study were excluded, which helped rule out reverse causation (that anxiety prevents people from engaging in physical activity, rather than physical activity preventing anxiety).

The researchers had previously published research finding that skiiers also had lower rates of depression compared to non-skiiers.

There was a notable difference in performance level and the risk of developing anxiety between the male and female skiiers. In men, physical performance did not affect the risk of developing anxiety, but in women, the highest performing group of skiiers had almost double the risk of developing anxiety compared to the group that was physically active at a lower level of performance. However, the group of high-performing women still had a lower risk of developing anxiety compared to the more physically inactive women in the general population. More research is required, as factors such as genetics, psychological factors, and personality traits were not investigated in this group.

Regular exercise is an inexpensive, easily accessible tool for both reducing symptoms of anxiety as well as potentially preventing it from developing in the future.