Dr. Jennifer Heisz: ...the role of physical exercise in our mental health

Nobody Told Me!

Entrepreneurship, Business

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What role does exercise play in our mental health? On this episode, we’ll explore the science behind the impact physical activity has on our brain function. Joining us is Dr. Jennifer Heisz, who is a leading expert on the neuroscience of exercise and the Director of the NeuroFit Lab at McMaster University. She’s the author of the book, "MOVE THE BODY, HEAL THE MIND: Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep". Her website is https://www.jenniferheisz.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Nobody Told Me.
0:11.4	I'm Laura Owens and I'm Jan Black.
0:13.8	And on this episode, we'll take a look at the role exercise plays in our mental health.
0:18.3	We'll explore the science behind the impact physical activity has on
0:21.8	our brain function. Joining us is Dr. Jennifer Heise, who is a leading expert on the neuroscience of
0:27.4	exercise and the director of the neurofit lab at McMaster University. She's the author of the new
0:33.5	book, Move the Body, Heal the Mind, Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia, and
0:39.9	improve focus, creativity, and sleep. Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us.
0:45.2	Thanks for having me. Tell us what prompted you to write this book.
0:49.7	Well, as you mentioned, I'm the director of the Neurofit Lab. So I conduct research in this area on the effects of exercise in the brain.
0:59.0	But I also have a personal story here too, where I used exercise to heal my own brain of some pretty severe anxiety and some OCD that I had struggled with earlier on in my life.
1:12.4	Talk to us a little bit about your experience with antidepressants and just, you know,
1:17.4	mental health, drugs and traditional approaches in general.
1:21.3	Yeah.
1:21.8	So when I first started to experience symptoms of anxiety, it was back in my 20s. I was in grad school and I was
1:29.3	studying the effects of exercise on the brain, sort of the fundamentals of neuroscience,
1:33.3	who we are. And it became clear something was wrong with my own brain. I was
1:38.3	experiencing pretty severe anxiety and I went to the doctor and the school doctor they they really the first
1:45.9	line of defense was handing me an antidepressant and I was really reluctant to take it
1:51.0	and so fortunately a friend had recommended I try cycling and much to my surprise after I borrowed
1:59.4	my friend's rusty old road bike, those cycling,
2:02.6	those bike rides really soothed my mind.
	...

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