User:Jake-the-dog-tattoo/Mental health

Exercise can have a positive affect on one's body. It can improve one's physical form. Exercise can also play a role in improving one's mental health, and help with anxiety, depression, etc. When one exercises, the brain releases happy chemicals and this can improve their self confidence. Exercise can also help to get rid of gloomy thoughts.

It is important to analyze exercise, and how it played a role during the COVID-19 outbreak. In 2020, more than 2,000 participants participated in a survey. There were three factors that made one eligible to participate: The first factor is that one has to know the Chinese language. The second factor is the person, that is participating, and their family members should not have COVID-19. The final factor is that the person should not have a mental illness (11). The people that participated, were from China, and they were not allowed to leave their home. They also asked them if they felt comfortable to participate in the survey (11).

One of the questions, that participants were asked, was: "Average duration (hours) of daily exercise in the past 2 weeks" (12). One had to document the amount of time that they were exercising. They also had to document, daily, if they experienced feelings of anxiety. In this study, more than half of the participants were women. In the results, the first table shows that more than 500 participants noted that they felt anxious or depressed.

According to Yao, "We found a significant main effect of physical exercise on mental health outcomes (β = −0.084, 95% CI = (−0.131, −0.072), p < 0.001). The results showed that the more exercise one takes, the less stressful mental health outcomes one experiences" (22). The researchers discovered that participants, who exercised, had a positive effect on their mental health. The researchers also discovered that exercise can affect the levels of dopamine, and serotonin, and these chemicals get released in the brain (27).

Their second finding is that exercise helped with their thinking skills, and their levels of hope. According to Yao, "Performing exercise enhances one’s sense of power and self-agency to believe that one can take active actions and reinforce self-esteem" (28). Yao explains that exercise can help with one's self confidence. Since people had to remain indoors, due to the pandemic, exercise gave them a little more control over their lives.

Article #1 Title: Mental Health
(Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1424736/)

Physical activity
Physical activity has had a positive impact on one's mental health. According to R Needle, "Physiological studies have consistently found that exercising has relaxation effects (39, 40)" (197).

Section #2:

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4090

Title: The Relationship between Exercise and Mental Health Outcomes during the COVID-19 Pandemic: From the Perspective of Hope

"In this cross-sectional study, an online survey was conducted among Chinese individuals from 10 April to 29 April 2020. During that period, students and staff were not allowed to return to campus and socially isolated at home. Mixed methods of convenience sampling and snowball sampling were used to collect data by distributing questionnaire links to the participants in three Chinese universities. Inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) participants were able to understand the Chinese language; (2) neither participants nor their family members were infected with COVID-19; (3) the participants were not diagnosed with mental illness before the pandemic, not limited to anxiety and depression disorders. A total of 2390 participants were included in the final sample".