It has been found that people with high cardiopulmonary function have superior resilience to mental stress.
Cardiopulmonary function refers to the ability of the heart, blood vessels, and lungs to efficiently supply and utilize oxygen during exercise. New research has shown that people with good cardiopulmonary function tend to experience less anxiety and have a greater ability to recover from stressful situations.
Cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with lower anger and anxiety and higher emotional resilience - ScienceDirect
People with better cardiorespiratory fitness tend to be less anxious and more resilient in emotional situations
https://www.psypost.org/people-with-better-cardiorespiratory-fitness-tend-to-be-less-anxious-and-more-resilient-in-emotional-situations/
People with high cardiorespiratory fitness can sustain activities like walking, running, and swimming for extended periods. These exercises are associated with improved physical health, endurance, and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Studies have also shown that exercise can improve mental health and help treat depression .
A research team led by Thales Guilarducci Costa, a researcher at the Federal University of Goiás in Brazil, investigated the relationship between changes in anxiety and anger in response to visual stimuli that elicit emotional responses, and cardiopulmonary function.
The research team pointed out that stressful events can reduce physical activity habits, potentially leading to a decline in cardiopulmonary function. They also hypothesized that people with high cardiopulmonary function have a higher tolerance for visual stimuli that trigger emotional responses, and that they tend to experience less anger and anxiety.
The research team included 40 healthy subjects aged 18 to 40, who visited the laboratory twice. During the first visit, the subjects' height and weight were measured, baseline characteristics such as anger and anxiety were assessed, and they self-reported their levels of physical activity. Based on this information, the research team estimated
During two visits, participants were shown either a set of 69 images designed to evoke unpleasant emotions or a set of 69 neutral images, both selected from the International Affective Picture System (ICP), which is known to induce specific emotions.
After viewing each image, participants reported their emotional response to the image using a nonverbal rating scale, and anger and anxiety were measured before and after viewing the series of images. The researchers also monitored participants' heart rates while they viewed each image.
Analysis of the data revealed that the group with above-average cardiorespiratory function had significantly lower levels of anxiety as a characteristic compared to the group with below-average function. Furthermore, subjects with below-average cardiorespiratory function who viewed disturbing images reported a sharper increase in anger and anxiety compared to subjects with above-average function. Subjects with below-average cardiorespiratory function were 775% more likely to experience an increase in anxiety levels from 'moderate' to 'high' after viewing stressful images.
The research team stated, 'Our findings indicate that people with higher cardiorespiratory fitness tend to have lower levels of anxiety and greater resilience after being exposed to emotionally stressful stimuli. This supports the growing evidence that physical activity plays a vital role in emotional health.'
It should be noted that this study was conducted on a very small number of participants, and the estimation of cardiopulmonary function was based on self-reported physical activity levels. The psychology media outlet PsyPost pointed out that the results may differ if objective cardiopulmonary function measurement methods were used on a larger population.
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