How Your Physical Health Can Affect Your Mood

Physical health and mood or mental health have a strong connection and each can adversely affect one another, making the understanding of how to use them for each other an extremely valuable part of your personal health journey. The main three factors that play into both sides of your overall health come down to nutrition, activity, and hormone levels and these three areas depend on each other for balanced, holistic health.

Movement and working out obviously has tremendous benefits to the physical body, but the effect on mood and emotion can be even more obvious. If you've heard of a "runner's high", you have heard of the beginning on mental boost from movement. Even just short spurts of physical engagement in activity begin to release serotonin and improve mood quickly. The regular release of serotonin and endorphins continues to create this pattern of positive movement. This also relates to confidence and pride in your strength, endurance, appearance and self-efficacy.

Nutrition is also directly related to physical health and mood in the same way as exercise. Proper nutrition and hydration keep your brain energized, balanced and your body feeling strong. Proper nutrition and diet fuels your body for the sleep and immune system strength necessary to stay healthy and feeling good. for example, a balance of B Complex vitamins keeps brain energy and mood positive. By physically feeling good, strong and well rested it's easier to maintain a happy mood and focus on mental well-being in a big way.

Hormone health and balance plays a huge factor in mood, and even in how exercise and nutrition affect your mood. The brain is the most hormone-sensitive organ of the body, and when hormone levels are out of whack or low, mood swings and brain fogginess are often the first indicator. Serotonin, dopamine, glutamate and norepinephrine are all hormones affected by exercise and that directly affect mental health. All four of these chemicals co-mingle with the balance of testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen to produce energy, facilitate bodily functions, sleeping, hunger, bowel movements and so much more. Because all of this begins in the brain, it's vitally important to focus on physical health first to keep moods and energy high functioning.

As the intricacies of the body are wildly dependent upon each other, one small lifestyle change can make hefty impacts on physicality, mood, energy and quality of life. Proper nutrition, exercise, medications and low testosterone treatments are all ways to protect these levels and keep your levels balanced, body strong and mind right.