Depression and exercise

I can only speak for myself.... exercise makes me feel great all day long!

I agree; I'm always more perky when I've exercised, though I guess it could be argued that it's due to the fresh air, scenery and meeting other people.

All 361 people taking part were given conventional treatments appropriate to their level of depression.

But for eight months some in a randomly allocated group were also given advice on up to 13 separate occasions on how to increase their level of activity.

It was up to individual patients what activity they chose to increase and by how much.

All this proves is that advice about exercise doesn't help anyone. Most patients want to please their doctors (= authority figures) and some would definitely fib, "Oh yes, doctor, I've been running every day". I wouldn't pay much attention to a study of this kind unless the test subjects were routinely rounded up for half an hour of vigorous supervised calisthenics.

Exercise, cutting out junk food and reducing a couple of bad habits definitely make me feel better. What a shame that doesn't motivate me to stick with it!

Junk science is always useful when you want to sow confusion.

There are also studies that show that exercise does help with mild to moderate depression. I can't post links yet, but a quick Google search will find these citations.