Sports can help your physical health and relieve stress. Whenever you play a sport, like soccer or basketball, your mind stimulates the production of endorphins. An endorphin is any hormone that is secreted with the nervous system on having several physiological functions. Also, they are peptides that activate the body’s opiate receptors making the body have a pain killing effect. In an article about how participating in sports relieve stress, it talks about a feeling called “runner's high”. Studies showed that elevated levels of endorphins can cause a person to have a positive change in mood from the increased binding of the opioid receptors in certain areas of your brain. This causes you to decrease pain and help relieve symptoms of stress and tension.

Sports can help your physical health with “...efficient functioning of the heart, controlled diabetes, lower cholesterol levels, improved blood circulation, lower hypertension, lower stress levels...weight management, the toning of muscles and the strengthening of bones”(Organic Facts 1). Playing sports can improve the working of your heart and cardiovascular health from pumping more blood and giving the heart a workout. This can prevent you from having a malfunctioning heart in the future. Sports can help and control your diabetes by helping the insulin in your body work better and prevent you from having type two diabetes in the future. When playing a sport, you are constantly burning fat and shedding calories during -- therefore, making people who play sports lean and thinner. Sports can also help your blood pressure and keep your heart and blood vessels healthy. While playing a sport your body is well oxygenated and blood circulation can properly spread the nutrients throughout your body, making you healthy and active. Playing a sport can also strengthen your immune system, help fight diseases, increase production of sweat, and possibly remove toxins. Also, your body temperature rises making bacterial growth decrease. Sports are the best way to work out your muscles and build up their endurance -- therefore, making a stronger body. Also, sports work out and strengthen your bones which builds up and maintains bone density.

Sports can have a positive effect with social interaction. Participating in a club sport or a school team can help a person create a strong bond with teammates and teach them to socially communicate. Strong leadership qualities, along with responsibility and empathy are additional characteristics that sports activities may develop in young adults. Being a leader and caring for your teammates can help create a positive behavior that can carry on throughout life. Also people who have friends that play sports can encourage and motivate the person to stay healthy and exercise on a regular basis to stay fit. “...Research indicates that children can be empowered during a critical period of their development that they can make a difference in their own life”(Physical Activity Helps Improve Social Skills 1).

Conclusion Sports can significantly impact one’s life in multiple ways, including relieving stress, improving your physical fitness, and helping your academics and social skills. Also sports can teach you life lessons, including teamwork, discipline, hard work, practice and preparation that can be used in everyday physical activities and throughout your entire life. All of these are key components in developing into a successful individual.