Everyone benefits from regular exercise, but often people who are dealing with depression struggle to find the motivation and energy to attempt any kind of workout session. This is unfortunate, as exercise is proven to release a variety of “feel-good” neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine and endorphins.
Exercise not only contributes to one’s sense of happiness and satisfaction, but also to overall health and wellness. In fact, recent research studies even unveiled that middle aged subjects who exhibited higher than average fitness levels were far less likely to face heart disease than their out-of-shape counterparts.
Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, head of the recent study who directs the Center for Depression Research & Clinical Care, insists that although exercise is difficult for depressed people it is not impossible. Previous research he cited determined that depressed people are often only able to perform three-fourths of their typical exercise routine. Even still, Dr. Trivedi provided some practical steps for getting and maintaining the right momentum to power through your workout, despite depression:
- Consistency is key. Establish a set exercise time and do your best to stick to it.
- Track your progress in a journal.
- Perform a variety of exercises, not just one (in order to avoid boredom). Pick an activity you enjoy.
- Find a workout partner.
- Ask someone to keep you accountable and make sure you’re doing your exercises.
Trivedi’s study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry sought to establish a pattern between the study’s participants’ fitness level, their probability of dying from heart disease and their level of fitness. The findings showed people with higher fitness levels were more than 50% less likely to die of heart disease, in spite of their depression diagnosis and age.
Depression isn’t only an influencer of heart disease, it’s also connected to raising the risk factors for many other conditions like obesity, chronic kidney disease and diabetes. Dr. Trivedi hypothesized that much improvement could be gained from exercise due to its ability to reduce inflammation which is a a risk factor for both heart disease and depression.
Drawing upon this an other studies, Dr. Trivedi is confident in saying that exercise can often be the best preventative medicine for potentially life-threatening conditions and also one of the best treatments for dealing with depression. Depressed people should try their best to get any exercise, even just a little each day can add up to tremendous benefits.
Depression is a difficult condition to live with, so if you’d like more help please feel free to reach out via my website for more information about the services I offer for dealing with depression.