Lifting dumbbells and practicing muscles can relieve mental stress. According to the British “Daily Mail” reported on September 26, scientists from Sweden’s Karolinska School of Medicine found that muscle strength exercises seem to work like the liver to remove toxins from the body, filtering out stress-causing chemicals and preventing them from reaching the brain. This new finding not only helps explain why exercise can reduce stress, but also provides a new avenue for the treatment of depression. Scientists have found that stronger muscles produce more of a protective protein called KATS, an enzyme that breaks down and removes stress chemicals called kynurenine from the bloodstream, preventing them from reaching the brain and causing symptoms of depression. Kynurenine is a chemical that can cause depressive symptoms to occur; however, muscular people are not sensitive to the chemical. In fact, kynurenine levels in the blood of muscular people have not been elevated because the muscle-produced KATS enzyme rapidly breaks down and destroys kynurenine. This research, published in the journal Cell, shows that muscles can have amazing detoxification functions similar to those of the liver and kidneys, and that well-trained muscles protect the brain by producing protective enzymes to remove stress chemicals from the blood. Let’s exercise happily !