Tag: Jasper Smits

SELF: How Exercise Can Make You Happy (in Just 20 Minutes!)

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 30, 2012

SELF writer Ginny Graves has covered the research of SMU psychologist Dr. Jasper Smits. The article in the latest issue of SELF, “How Exercise Can Make You Happy (in Just 20 Minutes!),” quotes Smits, an associate professor of psychology, on his research finding that high levels of physical activity can buffer against stress for those who are at risk.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Ginny Graves
SELF
It turns out that stressing the body by working out de-stresses the mind. We tested the effect on four sedentary women who were feeling frazzled, and the proof is in: mood-boosting, life-changing results.
By Ginny Graves

Woman A is having a bad day. First, her boss comes by and barks at her for missing a deadline. Then her mom calls and guilt-trips her for forgetting her aunt’s birthday. Oh, and that new guy she has been texting? He’s MIA.

Her stress hormones—cortisol and adrenaline—are surging. In her brain, cortisol is binding with receptors in the hippocampus, the seat of memory formation and learning. For now, this will hone her recall. But if she doesn’t get her stress in check, over time, key connections between nerve cells in her brain won’t function as well, impairing her memory and her ability to take in new information, and raising her risk for depression and anxiety.

All she knows is that she’s overwhelmed. So at lunch, she heads to the gym and hops onto the elliptical. As her heart begins to pound, levels of the feel-good neurochemicals serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine rise in her body. So does brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a substance that may protect her brain from emotional disorders and repair damage that stress and depression cause. At the same time, opiate-like endorphins and endocannabinoids (similar to the other kind of cannabis) flood her system, leading to a sense of well-being. …

… Unlike those deprived mice, Woman A is feeling so good that she cranks up the elliptical. As she does, her body begins releasing gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, a calming neurotransmitter. Not that she is calm, exactly; she’s subjecting her system to a low-level form of stress. “Exercise raises your heart rate and triggers a surge of hormonal changes. Expose yourself to this ‘stress’ enough and your body builds up immunity to it. Eventually, it will get better at handling the rest of life’s stressors,” says clinical psychologist Jasper Smits, Ph.D., coauthor of Exercise for Mood and Anxiety. But stay sedentary and your body can become more sensitive to stress, so even minor triggers leave you tied up in knots. …

Read the full story.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, Jasper Smits, SMU Department of Psychology

Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News

APA: The Exercise Effect

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date December 7, 2011

Science writer Kirsten Weir with The American Psychological Association has covered the research of SMU psychologist Dr. Jasper Smits. The December 2011 article, The Exercise Effect, quotes Smits, an associate professor of psychology, on his research finding that high levels of physical activity can buffer against panic for those who are at risk.

People with an intense fear of the nausea, racing heart, dizziness, stomachaches and shortness of breath that accompany panic — known as “high anxiety sensitivity” — reacted with less anxiety to the study’s panic-inducing stressor if they had been engaging in high levels of physical activity.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Kirsten Weir
American Psychological Association

… Researchers have also explored exercise as a tool for treating — and perhaps preventing — anxiety. When we’re spooked or threatened, our nervous systems jump into action, setting off a cascade of reactions such as sweating, dizziness, and a racing heart. People with heightened sensitivity to anxiety respond to those sensations with fear. They’re also more likely to develop panic disorder down the road, says Jasper Smits, PhD, Co-Director of the Anxiety Research and Treatment Program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and co-author, with Otto, of the 2011 book “Exercise for Mood and Anxiety: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Enhancing Well-being.”

Smits and Otto reasoned that regular workouts might help people prone to anxiety become less likely to panic when they experience those fight-or-flight sensations. After all, the body produces many of the same physical reactions — heavy perspiration, increased heart rate — in response to exercise. They tested their theory among 60 volunteers with heightened sensitivity to anxiety. Subjects who participated in a two-week exercise program showed significant improvements in anxiety sensitivity compared with a control group (Depression and Anxiety, 2008). “Exercise in many ways is like exposure treatment,” says Smits. “People learn to associate the symptoms with safety instead of danger.”

In another study, Smits and his colleagues asked volunteers with varying levels of anxiety sensitivity to undergo a carbon-dioxide challenge test, in which they breathed CO2-enriched air. The test often triggers the same symptoms one might experience during a panic attack: increased heart and respiratory rates, dry mouth and dizziness. Unsurprisingly, people with high anxiety sensitivity were more likely to panic in response to the test. But Smits discovered that people with high anxiety sensitivity who also reported high activity levels were less likely to panic than subjects who exercised infrequently (Psychosomatic Medicine, 2011). The findings suggest that physical exercise could help to ward off panic attacks. “Activity may be especially important for people at risk of developing anxiety disorder,” he says.

Smits is now investigating exercise for smoking cessation. The work builds on previous research by Bess Marcus, PhD, a psychology researcher now at the University of California San Diego, who found that vigorous exercise helped women quit smoking when it was combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy (Archives of Internal Medicine, 1999). However, a more recent study by Marcus found that the effect on smoking cessation was more limited when women engaged in only moderate exercise (Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2005).

Read the full story.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To interview Jasper Smits or book him in the SMU studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Tags Dedman College, Jasper Smits, SMU Department of Psychology

Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Researcher news SMU In The News

Dallas Morning News: Get back into shape by teaming up with a workout group

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date August 26, 2011

Journalist Leslie Garcia Barker interviewed SMU psychologist Dr. Jasper Smits for an article on exercise in the Dallas Morning News. The August 26 article, “Get back into shape by teaming up with a workout group,” quotes Smits, an associate professor of psychology, on the benefits of a buddy system for motivating people to exercise.

Smits co-wrote with psychologist Michael Otto a new book to help people get regular physical activity, “Exercise for Mood and Anxiety: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Improving Well-Being” (Oxford University Press; $17.95).

In his most recent published research, Smits reported findings that people with an intense fear of the nausea, racing heart, dizziness, stomachaches and shortness of breath that accompany panic — known as “high anxiety sensitivity” — reacted with less anxiety to a panic-inducing stressor if they had been engaging in high levels of physical activity.

“Anxiety sensitivity is an established risk factor for the development of panic and related disorders,” says SmitsJasper Smits, lead author on the research. “This study suggests that this risk factor may be less influential among persons who routinely engage in high levels of physical activity.”

Read the full story (Dallas Morning News subscription required).

EXCERPT:

By Leslie Barker Garcia
Dallas Morning News

The first time Lisa Vega attempted the swimming part of a triathlon, the waves were so high she climbed into the rescue kayak. The second time, she ran into the lake, had a panic attack and ran back to shore. The third, she rolled onto her back in the water screaming, “I’m drowning!”

People told her to try another hobby. Instead, she joined Tri Junkies. Without the support of this training group, she says, her journey to successful triathlons — including an Ironman — would have been “a lonely, lonely road.”

“I’ve never in my whole life, as nerdy as this sounds, really been part of anything that I really, really felt this good about,” says Vega, 42, a juvenile probation officer in Fort Worth. “I can’t even explain it. It’s natural, it’s comfortable, and it’s fun.”

Eleven years ago, Joany McCrossen and her niece joined a marathon-training class at Luke???s Locker. McCrossen subsequently completed that White Rock marathon and two others, plus a dozen or so half-marathons.

“Without the class,” says McCrossen, 54, who now coaches for Luke’s, “I would have lost motivation long ago.”

At the Jewish Community Center, group fitness director Terri Arends stresses to her instructors the importance of developing “connection, camaraderie and cohesiveness” in their classes.

“Those elements are so powerful &#8212 a powerful and positive drug,” Arends says.

Anyone who has belonged to a group, or even exercised on a regular basis with a partner, knows this firsthand. You count on each other, you look out for each other; your workouts just aren???t the same alone. Participants return week after week, season after season, to training sessions at running stores and workouts with running groups; to yoga and boot-camp and water-exercise classes. They crave the camaraderie, the feeling of belonging.

These friends see them through some of the most physically &#8212 and sometimes emotionally &#8212 challenging times of their lives.

When McCrossen’s husband, Mac, learned he had cancer earlier this year, her running group brought meals, emailed supportive messages and listened to her concerns and frustrations during their workouts. Members of one particular JCC class, led by Brenda Gardner, have been together “through weddings, deaths, newborn babies, multiple sclerosis and cancer,” Arends says.

Jennifer Kimble, training-class coordinator for Run On, encourages camaraderie among group members, suggesting they meet for dinner or for happy hour in addition to running together.

“They’re your cheering squad,” she says. “They’ll get you through long training runs. Some of my best friends are my running buddies.”

Arends, who titled her master’s thesis “Treadmills Are Non-Conversationalists: Group Exercise Programming Speaks,” says that human element is irreplaceable.

She cites a study at Harvard University of two sections of exercisers &#8212 one that worked out as a group, the other solo. Those who worked as a group “had more benefits as far as fitness levels and endurance,” she says. “Their caloric expenditure was higher.”

Jasper Smits is a Southern Methodist University psychologist who studies exercise and its effect on anxiety and depression. “Working out in groups can help increase social support, and that acts as a buffer to many stressors,” says Smits, who co-wrote with psychologist Michael Otto, Exercise for Mood and Anxiety: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Improving Well-Being (Oxford University Press; $17.95).

“Once you get people to exercise in a group, a buddy system develops. They feel they’re held accountable by others; they’re in this together. Not showing up comes with a cost, and that’s letting someone down.”

Read the full story (Dallas Morning News subscription required).

Tags Dedman College, Jasper Smits, SMU Anxiety Research and Treatment Program, SMU Department of Psychology

Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Researcher news SMU In The News

SMU Daily Campus: Study suggests exercise helps anxiety

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date August 24, 2011

SMU student journalist Bethany Suba has covered the research of SMU psychologist Dr. Jasper Smits for The Daily Campus. The August 24 article, “Study suggests exercise helps anxiety,” quotes Smits, an associate professor of psychology, on his research finding that high levels of physical activity can buffer against panic for those who are at risk.

“Anxiety sensitivity is an established risk factor for the development of panic and related disorders,” says Smits. “Our research suggests that this risk factor may be less influential among persons who routinely engage in high levels of physical activity.”

Read the full story in the Daily Campus.

EXCERPT:

By Bethany Suba
The Daily Campus

Haley Cooper, a senior at SMU, started getting night terrors when she was 8 years old. Those night terrors soon lead to problems with anxiety plus the occasional panic attack.
Cooper says she is still affected by her anxiety today but she uses exercise as a way to distract herself when she is stressed.

“Exercise is great to relieve or distract me when I’m stressed, it keeps my mind off anxiety and passes the time so I move past it,” she said.

Studies have shown that exercise has a similar effect on the body as an anti-depressant. Not only does it produce endorphins, exercise also helps improve high blood pressure, and can help prevent diabetes and arthritis.

A recent study, conducted by a team of researchers, including Jasper Smits, SMU psychologist and lead researcher, suggests that exercise may also help people with anxiety and panic attacks.

“If people exercise repeatedly they find that the sensations they were afraid of are benign. Exercise can help them overcome those panics,” Smits said.

He believes that a lot of people experience panic attacks occasionally.

Panic attacks and anxiety are caused by two main factors.

The first is biological factors, such as the fact that some people have a more sensitive alarm system and secondly, psychological factors, the way people fear bodily sensations or the panic itself, Smits said.

In his research on exercise and panic attacks, Smits and his team had a group of students who suffer from panic attacks participate in two weeks of regular exercise, three days a week.

They found that the students were afraid of the sensations associated with exercise because they are similar to those connected with panic attacks.

“When you get on a treadmill you experience the symptoms that people with panic attacks experience,” Smits said, “And when they learn they are safe they begin to overcome panic disorder.”

Read the full story in the Daily Campus.

Tags Dedman College, Jasper Smits, SMU Anxiety Research and Treatment Program, SMU Department of Psychology

Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News

mlive.com: For Grand Rapids therapists, exercise and counseling promote well being

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date August 4, 2011

Personal health journalist Paul R. Kopenkoskey has covered the research of SMU psychologist Dr. Jasper Smits for the online news site mlive.com of the Grand Rapids Press. The Aug. 1 article, For Grand Rapids therapists, exercise and counseling promote well being, quotes Smits, an associate professor of psychology, on his research finding that high levels of physical activity can buffer against panic for those who are at risk.

“Anxiety sensitivity is an established risk factor for the development of panic and related disorders,” says Smits, lead author on the research. “This study suggests that this risk factor may be less influential among persons who routinely engage in high levels of physical activity.”

Read the full article.

EXCERPT:

Paul R. Kopenkoskey
Grand Rapids Press
Jasper Smits, associate professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and director of the school’s Anxiety Research & Treatment Program, said counseling combined with exercise is an alternative method whose time has come for those seeking relief from anxiety disorders, including shortness of breath, racing heart and dizziness, known as high-anxiety sensitivity.

“People are seeking an established intervention,” said Smits. “A lot of people like the idea of exercise. It’s kind of a mind and body approach that appeals to some people.”

Smits co-authored a book for an August release titled, “Exercise for Mood and Anxiety: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Enhancing Well-Being” (Oxford University Press), which builds on earlier research that indicates exercise improves mood and reduces anxiety, working in a similar capacity to an antidepressant drug.

It’s written for people who are interested in step-by-step guidance on how to start and maintain an exercise program geared toward improving mood, with a particular emphasis on understanding the relationship between mood and motivation.

“We don’t argue for or against the use of physical activity over medication and cognitive therapy, and research doesn’t indicate one method is better than the other, but what we can say is there’s an approach that yields comparable results,” Smits said.

Read the full article.

Tags Dedman College, Jasper Smits, SMU Anxiety Research and Treatment Program, SMU Department of Psychology

Book a live interview

Related Links

More SMU Research news

Book a live interview

Related Links

More SMU Research news

Book a live interview

Related Links

More SMU Research news

Book a live interview

Related Links

More SMU Research news

Book a live interview

Related Links

More SMU Research news