Chronic stress and depression are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and poorer prognosis, and physical (in)activity may be a key underlying biobehavioral mechanism. Physical activity has antidepressant effects and physically fitter, more active individuals appear to be more biologically resilient to psychosocial stressors. This paper will present data from a series of population cohort studies and laboratory based psychophysiological studies to explore the role of physical activity as a protective factor against the effects of psychosocial stress on cardiovascular disease. These mechanisms may improve treatment and prevention of stress-related illnesses, and thus has important implications for public health and clinical care of high-risk patients.
Funding
The research presented in this article was made possible by funding from the British Heart Foundation.
History
School
Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
Psychosomatic Medicine
Citation
HAMER, M., 2012. Psychosocial stress and cardiovascular disease risk: the role of physical activity. Psychosomatic Medicine, 74(9), pp. 896-903.
Publisher
(C) American Psychosomatic Society. Published by Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
Version
AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Publication date
2012
Notes
This is a non-final version of an article published in final form in: HAMER, M., 2012. Psychosocial stress and cardiovascular disease risk: the role of physical activity. Psychosomatic Medicine, 74(9), pp. 896-903.