Stress Awareness Day is an annual event which raises awareness about stress, its causes, and effects and falls onto Wednesday 6th of November this year. To raise awareness, leading cycle and e-bike insurer cycleGuard shares how riding a bike can help to combat stress.
Cyclists can take advantage of many well-known physical benefits that riding a bike can bring, such as lowering blood pressure, improving cardio-vascular capacity, managing weight, building muscle, improving cholesterol levels and the all-round fitness. But less recognised are the mental health benefits.
“There are a number of activities we can do to help improve our mental health, and regular cycling can have many positive impacts on our mind and body” says Simon Bennett, Managing Director of cycleGuard.
Cycling can enhance well-being
Regular physical activity helps combat stress, depression and anxiety. Cycling is a great physical activity, a Japanese study confirmed that subjects pedalling a bike for 15 minutes saw their level of a stress hormone, cortisol, reduced.
These effects are amplified by cycling outdoors close to nature. Spending time in the natural environment can also reduce stress, anxiety and depression, so the combination of physical activity and being outdoors that cycling brings is a win-win.
Cycling can improve brain power
There’s a good reason why studies show that people’s mental skills are improved after a bike ride, it’s all to do with the ‘white matter’ in the brain. Grey matter is often more well-known, but white matter, found beneath the brain surface, acts as a conduit linking different regions of the brain together.
Evidence from a Dutch study over a six month period showed that healthy people who regularly pedalled increased the integrity of their white matter, helping their brains function more smoothly.
“In addition, recent studies have shown that regular cycling can help build a better brain, both structurally and functionally” adds Bennett.
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