The Reset Room podcast by National World: Physical actions to improve the mind

This week I was really pleased to be joined by Professor Brendon Stubbs, a leading researcher in the field of physical activity, mental health and the mind-body interface. 

Professor Stubbs is head of physiotherapy at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and clinical lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London. He is one of the most cited researchers in the world and his research has been featured in publications like the New York Times, Time magazine and Forbes. 

Professor Stubbs tells us about the abundance of evidence that supports the theory that being physically active can benefit our mental health. For example, he tells us about one study where participants were randomly allocated either running three times a week or antidepressants - results showed the physical exercise had the same positive impact on depressive symptoms over a four-month period. He tells us this approach can be particularly helpful as there aren't any of the potential side effects that could be associated with taking medication.

He says: "We’ve shown that if you engage with physical activity and exercise you can get improvements and increase in volume or the size in an area of the brain called the hippocampus. It’s really important for lots of things including the consolidation of short to long term memory and emotional processing areas. You can also light this area up during bouts of exercise and in the short term you can see an increase in electrical activity which means it's working."

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Professor Stubbs also tells us about studies around diet and how reducing or removing highly processed foods and adopting a Mediterranean style diet could also be very beneficial for mental health, based on research in the area.

Join us to hear much more on how upping your physical activity can be life changing.

Late on in this episode a listener also shares her struggle with a huge change to her lifestyle. Having been a very active individual in the past, motherhood has put a stop to her fitness regime, and she is struggling with this. Professor Stubbs offers some advice that might help her get back on track.

In this new series, topics we are covering include Seasonal Affective Disorder and How stress can spread.

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