Just saw one of the most helpful videos I have ever seen! I took the time to transcribe it in case you cannot view the source video on Facebook.
All psychology, all neuroscience and I think this is the most interesting finding of the last decade in all of science. And this is the insight that your muscles are basically an endocrine organ that secretes hormones into your bloodstream, that affect every system of your body. Your muscles, they secrete chemicals and proteins when you exercise that are also really good for your brain health and one of the fist papers almost ten years ago that was published explaining that when you contract your muscles they literally secrete these proteins into your bloodstream that make you resilient to stress and can protect you from depression.
The scientists called them “hope molecules”, this idea that literally your muscles are manufacturing like antidepressant molecules and the only way to get them into your bloodstream where they can then travel to your brain is you have to contract your muscles. Like, that’s it! It’s like a pharmacy in your muscles and anything your do that contracts them: walking, hiking, running, dancing, weight lifting, like swimming, anything, you are going to be dumping “hope molecules” into your bloodstream that when they get to your brain they work as an antidepressant and they also help people recover from trauma. Like that… …that’s like a miracle!
Because of course it’s wonderful when medications work for you, but for so many people medications don’t work or they don’t do the full job in terms of in terms of helping with mental health and the idea that your muscles could provide you with the equivalents of something like an antidepressant medication… …that is