Tread Mill Therapy

The new semester is upon us; new classes, new notebooks, new opportunities. The stress of the end of the fall semester has been abated, and Harvard students are looking forward to a fresh start. Ambitions are high, and the concept of taking that fifth class seems all too doable. However, it will be only a matter of time until the stress of problem sets and midterm exams build up. The typical Harvard student reacts to the stress by working even harder, pulling all nighters in Lamont, or doing painful cram sessions. However, this semester, students might find that the key to surviving the stressful times can be found on a MAC treadmill, rather than a Widener carousel.

The relationship between body and mind is no secret; a healthy body produces a healthy mind. Therefore, during periods of high stress, such as midterm seasons and reading week, Harvard students need to spend more time doing physical activity. While the physical benefits of exercise are more or less widely know, it is easy to overlook the mental benefits.

According to research done at University of Colorado at Boulder, exercise has been proven to prevent the development of depression anxiety, among other stress-related disorders. In the experiment, lab rats were exposed to a stressor, and those that had been allowed to exercise had increased levels of serotonin, the chemical that regulates mood, and were shown to be less anxious and stressed than the rats that were not allowed to exercise. Exercise, in a sense, is a natural antidepressant. Other scientific research has also shown that exercise increases the development and maintenance of brain cells, as well as the hippocampus, the part of the brain necessary for memory.

If staying happy and sharp wasn’t enough reason to exercise, Harvard students should be aware of the benefit to their immune system. Moderate exercise has also proven to increase immunity. According to Mary P. Miles, Ph.D., an associate professor of exercise sciences at Montana State University, the risk of being infected with the flu virus or a cold will drop with moderate exercise. Another study, done at Appalachian State, found that those who walked at moderate pace for 40 minutes a day reported half the number of sick days taken off from work than those who didn’t exercise at all. It is still cold in Cambridge, so the flu is still a threat on campus, and it seems that regular exercise is key to staying in the classroom and out of University Health Services.

This research should also be a wake-up call for Harvard’s administrators. There are no real outlets or motivators for students to get active, especially toward the end of semesters when intramurals have ended. There are gym classes, but only those who are very self-motivated attend those. In many liberal arts colleges across the nation, there is a physical educational requirement. Although Harvard does not necessarily need to add such a requirement, it might be time to offer outlets for exercise, such creating and facilitating student run groups, keeping gyms open later, and longer intramural periods.

This semester, Harvard students should rethink their exercise habits and how they could be affecting their mental health. An hour at the gym might be as good as an hour at the library, in terms of mental preparation. The health benefits are so great that students ought to engage in some sort of exercise regularly, and the University should help motivate students to do so as well. Hopefully there will be more students jogging along the Charles from now on and less cooped up in the Widener dungeon.

Peter L. Knudson ’13, a Crimson editorial writer, lives in Matthews Hall.