ONE HOUR A WEEK CAN KEEP THE BLACK DOG AT BAY
JUST an hour of exercise per week can prevent depression and it’s as good as antidepressant pills at beating the blues new research has found.
More than a million Australians develop depression every year and together with anxiety and substance use it is estimated to cost the economy nearly $13 billion in health care costs, forgone income tax and welfare benefits.
But new research published in The American Journal of Psychiatry today – which looked at 49 studies involving 266,939 people followed up over seven years – found physical activity can protect against emergence of depression, regardless of age and geographical region.
Separate Australian research has found 12 per cent of cases of depression could be prevented by just one hour of physical activity each week and the more you exercise the greater the effect.
People who reported doing no exercise at all had a 44 per cent greater risk of developing depression compared to those exercising one to two hours each week, the work by Black Dog Institute’s Associate Professor Sam Harvey shows.
Personal trainer, author and Biggest Loser star Michelle Bridges knows how important exercise can be for mood.
“When you train you release a whole bunch of happy chemicals that changes your perception of your problems, you have a different set of eyes … it’s like taking a pressure cooker and pushing the release valve,” she said.