Just 30 minutes of brisk walking can immediately boost the mood of depressed patients, giving them the same quick pick-me-up they may be seeking from cigarettes, caffeine or binge eating, a small study found.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin found that people suffering from depression who walked on a treadmill for 30 minutes reported feeling more vigorous and had a greater sense of psychological well-being for up to an hour after completing the workout.

Those patients and another group that sat quietly for 30 minutes both reported reductions in negative feelings such as tension, depression, anger and fatigue.

But only the group that exercised said they felt good after the session, according to the study, published in the December issue of the journal, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

Lead researcher John Bartholomew said the study reinforces past research that has found consistent exercise, along with medication and counseling, can help people overcome depression.

However, Bartholomew's is among the first to show that exercise can have a positive effect right away.

"It's not something you have to do for 10 weeks and it's not something you have to do at a high intensity," said Bartholomew, an associate professor of kinesiology and health education. "You should derive a benefit very early on in the process, and hopefully that is the kind of thing that will motivate them to continue to engage in the behavior."

The study, funded by Future Search Trials, an Austin medical research company, involved 40 people between the ages of 18 and 55. All were recently diagnosed with major depressive disorder, were not taking antidepressants and did not regularly exercise.

Twenty patients were assigned to exercise for 30 minutes, while the others sat quietly for the same amount of time. They were surveyed five minutes before the session and five, 30 and 60 minutes afterward.

The positive mood effects from walking were sizable, lifting their feelings of vigor to near-normal levels, the study said. But the results were short-lived, returning to pre-exercise levels within an hour.

While the study shows depressed people who self-medicate with cigarettes, caffeine or food binges could get similar positive feelings from exercising, experts said it won't be easy to persuade them to replace bad habits with walking or shooting hoops. It's hard enough to get healthy adults to exercise.

"For people who are severely depressed, that may not be something I'm really going to hang my hat on," said Dr. Erik Nelson, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

But for mildly to moderately depressed patients, exercise may lessen feelings of helplessness and isolation, he said.

"People shouldn't feel like the only thing they can do is take their medicine and wait till they feel better," Nelson said. "This kind of shows there are things you can do to help yourself in the short term."

Source: USA Today, 23/01/2006

How useful is exercise for people with severe depression, anxiety, or chronic mental illness? According to the December issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter, hundreds of studies show that it can help -- but there are qualifications.

The Harvard Mental Health Letter reports that possible explanations for the mood-enhancing effect of exercise include:

* enhanced body image

* social support from exercise groups

* distraction from everyday worries

* heightened self-confidence from meeting a goal

* altered circulation of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine,

and the endorphins.

Exercise may also serve as a form of predictable stress that supplies a kind of "vaccination" against the uncontrolled stress that leads to depression and anxiety.

It's also possible that exercise's effect on mental health is an illusion, says the Harvard Mental Health Letter. According to some surveys and observational studies, it could be that depression and anxiety prevent people from exercising, rather than the other way around. Or some feature of personality or upbringing might cause both depression and sedentary habits.

Even controlled trials on the subject often have problems, such as insufficient follow-up, the difficulty of correcting for the effect of expectations, and the fact that people who volunteer for exercise studies are not necessarily typical.

These doubts may not matter, because exercise has many health benefits and does little harm. But low motivation is a problem. People are often told to find an activity they enjoy, but depressed people don't enjoy anything much. So it's necessary to begin slowly and remember that exercise does not have to be strenuous to be helpful. Walking, gardening, or household work will do.

Source: PRNewswire via COMTEX, 22/11/2005

According to a twenty-year study by Kaiser Permanente, between seventy and eighty-five percent of illness is caused by stress, meaning that in the U.S. alone stress is costing us about one-trillion dollars per year in healthcare costs. Since most absenteeism is due to stress, US business is losing upwards of $300 billion per year.

On a more personal level, it is disturbing to realize that aging is accelerated by stress, and stress is a growing issue with all of us. Studies show that change is stressful, even "good" change. So as we computer jockeys settle into the saddle of a new age of rapidly changing information, we need an edge that can help us stay healthy, sane, “younger” and more vibrant, even as we are often at the very center of the hurricane of modern change, such as keeping up with new hardware and software.

Ironically an ancient mind/body tool provides the perfect balm for our generation's modern problems -- it is called "Tai Chi" (pronounced tie-chee). T'ai Chi is a gentle series of relaxing motions that cleanse the body's tissue of accumulated stress and, by doing so, boosts all aspects of our health systems. According to emerging research boosting the immune system's strength dramatically, while reducing the incidence of depression, anxiety, and even reducing chronic pain conditions, are just a few of T'ai Chi's myriad benefits.

What makes ancient T'ai Chi the perfect modern balm is that it doesn't require special facilities or clothing, and doesn't even make you break a sweat, meaning you can do it in office attire in an empty boardroom just by kicking off your heels. Yet, it provides the same euphoria of a long run, the cardiovascular benefit of moderate impact aerobics, and burns nearly as many calories as downhill skiing.

Our time is filled with paradox. A problem in this modern age stems from the great promise of the information age -- a tidal wave of data being created by and offered to our "left brain"; that part of our minds that is analytical, calculating, and categorizing the world. Of course, this is a powerful and important part of who we are. This is the part of the mind that gets things done, pays the rent, builds the houses, and makes the cars. Our "right brain," however, is getting left behind in our rapidly changing techno-world, and this imbalance of thought processes is at the heart of modern stress.

Our right brain is the feeling, smelling, sensing . . . enjoying part of the mind. This is the part of the mind that smells the flowers, not to analyze the smell, but to be filled with its beauty -- and this is the part that has been left behind in the digital world. When we go to the cyber mall, for example, our right brain doesn't get to play. The cyber mall is a wonderful thing that saves us time, money, and gas for our cars (and thereby saves the environment), but there are no Auntie Anne's Pretzels to smell in cyberspace, or warm sunlight streaming in through the big skylights.

So what do we do? We get the best of both worlds. T'ai Chi is a series of exercises to balance the mind. T'ai Chi teaches us to experience life for sheer pleasure, thereby creating balance in our busy "get things done yesterday" world. If you learn T'ai Chi and practice in the morning before you sit down at your computer, your right brain (the sensing and enjoying brain) will be turned on more. You will feel the texture of your computer keys. You will remember to take the time to get a nice cup of green tea or herbal cinnamon spice tea, and you'll interrupt your staccato keyboard occasionally to smell the tea's rich aroma, feel the warmth in your hands, and breathe the breath of life deeply into your lungs.

Although you are at the cutting edge of the information age revolution, you are also in the garden of life. This will give you an edge in the long run. Why? Because chronic stress diminishes our cognitive skills and therefore, our creativity.

Einstein said, "Creativity is more important than knowledge." Even if we have the world's knowledge at our fingertips, if we are too stressed out to use the knowledge "creatively,” we are much less effective. Plus, we're not as much fun!

The bottom line is T'ai Chi is a set of exercises to practice enjoying life. It's not enough just to say, "I'm going to enjoy life more." We actually have to practice mind/body tools that can positively affect our brain wave activity, in an integrative way, as T'ai Chi is proven to do.

T'ai Chi is an extremely sophisticated mind/body science that evolved over millennia, and is now being made available to all of us after centuries of being closely guarded secrets in China. Even though the practices are ancient, they are in many ways just as cutting edge as the multi-gigabyte computer.

Don't just be "cutting edge" with your left-brain. Go all the way and stretch the envelope with your right brain, too, by weaving T'ai Chi into your life. You will be forever glad you did, as you discover balance and calm in the eye of the modern world's ever accelerating storm of changes rushing at us.

Source: Medical News Today, 30/10/2005

Patients with depression should be offered exercise on prescription rather than drugs, campaigners say.

The Mental Health Foundation (MHF) say that GPs should be offering all patients with depression a programme of exercise to help combat their symptoms.

The charity's new report - Up and Running? - marks the start of a year-long campaign calling for more exercise therapy for people with mild or moderate depression.

The majority of the drugs are also now not recommended for under 18s due to possible side effects including the increased risk of suicide.

The MHF said that growing evidence showed that a supervised programme of exercise on prescription could be as effective as antidepressants in mild to moderate depression.

But their report said GPs were still turning to the drugs as their first option because they believed there was a lack of available alternatives, such as counselling.

The cost of antidepressant prescriptions in England has risen by more than 2,000 per cent in 12 years, they added.

A poll of 200 GPs found that only five per cent used exercise as one of their three most common treatment responses to depression.

In contrast 92 per cent of GPs used antidepressants as one of their three most common treatment responses.

The survey also found that 78 per cent of doctors had prescribed an antidepressant in the last three years despite believing an alternative treatment might have been more appropriate.

Three-quarters said they had done so because a suitable alternative, such as counselling, was not available.

Dr Andrew McCulloch, MHF chief executive, said: "Patients with mild or moderate depression asking their GPs for help are currently being denied an effective treatment option - exercise referral.

"Society needs to be educated about the benefits of exercise in treating mild or moderate depression, and GPs need to be made aware that exercise referral is available."

Paul Bates, head of mental health and disability services at South Tyneside Primary Care Trust, said: "For GPs, the cost of changing their practice is psychological, not financial.

"They're beginning to see that there are alternatives to writing a prescription, and that it's not their sole responsibility to deal with a person's problem - there are alternatives, and exercise referral is an example of that."

The MHF called for the Government to invest £20 million in developing and promoting exercise referral as a treatment for depression across the UK - representing around five per cent of the annual spend on antidepressants in England.

Source: Daily Mail, 29/03/2005

He's a Vietnam vet who wears clunky metal rings on nearly every finger and builds computers for fun, but lately the only place David Wilson wants to be is on his yoga mat.

The 50-year-old is homeless, struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and has chronic pain in his neck and back. And until recently, a good night's sleep meant just two hours of solid snooze time.

But since enrolling in a stress reduction class at the Middletown Community Health Center, Wilson says he's finally sleeping through the night. Through yoga and meditation sessions, he is controlling his pain and has learned to focus his breathing.

The concept of mind over matter is nothing new to the medical world. Doctors have been prescribing meditation as a form of pain management for years, but now a few pioneers are working to spread the theory into poorer neighborhoods.

They are posting fliers in waiting rooms, getting doctors to promote the program and are recruiting people by phone and mail.

Their mission is to debunk the myth that yoga is only for the rich and very flexible.

"There are a lot of stereotypes that people who are not rich wouldn't be smart enough, wouldn't be motivated enough, wouldn't be interested enough. Meditation wouldn't be somehow as relevant to them," said Beth Roth, a nurse practitioner who teaches the program in Middletown.

Then, Roth says, there are patients like Wilson, who has started holding regular meditation sessions with his roommate in a shelter. There's also Cynthia Green, an unemployed 44-year-old parent who takes a 10-mile bus ride from Meriden each week to make the class in Middletown.

Still, there are only five patients enrolled in Roth's eight-week class in Middletown. She wants to get the word out that the program exists and that it is often covered by health insurance.

Medicaid and even private insurers may pick up the cost under new health behavior billing codes, Roth said. For those who don't have health insurance, most clinics will offer big discounts based on family incomes.

Courses range in price. Roth's class costs nearly $400, while classes taught in the Santa Cruz, Calif., area are priced around $250-$300.

In El Paso, Texas, one woman is leading a campaign to teach stress reduction to Spanish-speaking women on the Mexican border. Through a small grant, Jane Poss intends to offer the class for free.

"I want to offer them something that is a good option to help them manage their own stress or anxiety without relying on medication. This serves them over the long term," said Poss, a nurse practitioner and a professor at the University of Texas-El Paso.

Roth's eight-week program involves basic yoga exercises and meditation with patients concentrating on becoming more "mindful" of the moment. During a recent class, she asked her students to keep their eyes closed and "feel the breath" as they inhaled in and out, almost in unison. Patients are encouraged to practice at home with audiotapes.

"When I get upset, I just do the body scan and ask myself, 'Where do I actually feel the discomfort?'" said Green, who used to have a substance abuse problem and now battles depression, anxiety and arthritis.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction was developed in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, Mass. There are about 200 programs worldwide with only a few targeted toward low-income people.

Fernando de Torrijos led one of the first clinics in the 1990s that offered free treatment, child care and transportation. The Worcester clinic was forced to close in 2000, but de Torrijos has since recruited 50 patients for a new class in Worcester beginning in January.

Advocates hope more medical research will help gain state and federal funding. Studies at the University of Wisconsin that examine how the brain reacts to meditation may open some doors, Roth said.

During one of Roth's recent classes, she started a group discussion by asking how the meditation tapes were helping the patients cope.

Wilson raised his hand and said he'd been listening to the tapes while also jamming to some Bob Dylan and Carly Simon. The pain that usually starts in his neck and then makes its way down to his fingers had started to subside, he said.

"If I put it out of my mind, you know it's there, but it's not something I focus on anymore," he said, smiling.

Source: Associated Press, 08/12/2004

Students who increase their physical activity during their middle-school years have fewer symptoms of depression, according to a new study.

Higher levels of physical activity at the start of the seventh grade were tied to lower levels of depression at the same point, while increased activity over the two years of the study was associated with reduced depressive symptoms at the end of the study, say Rod K. Dishman, Ph.D., of the University of Georgia and colleagues.

Their research appeared in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

"A naturally occurring change in physical activity across time was inversely associated with a change in levels of depressive symptoms across time," Dishman says.

The practical magnitude of the change was small -- affecting about 3 percent of the students -- but statistically significant, he says, comparing it to the 8 percent effect found in a clinical trial of an SSRI, a common type of antidepressant medication.

The group of 4,594 Minnesota students were asked if they got 20 minutes of exercise at least three times a week and took a standard test for adolescent depression. Other factors, like smoking, gender, alcohol use, socioeconomic status and attitudes about health, appearance and achievement were recorded too, but had no effect on the outcomes.

The children's frequency of physical activity increased early in the study, but then leveled off. Dishman warned that stable levels of physical activity coupled with an increase in depression expected in early adolescence means parents and educators should take steps to keep children increasingly active.

Physical activity should be considered along with other preventive or treatment approaches to depression, like antidepressant drugs or psychotherapy, Dishman says. Furthermore, exercise has the benefit of being cheap and accessible and has few side effects.

"It is important to investigate the efficacy of low-risk interventions for reducing depression symptoms, such as physical activity, that may be more acceptable to youth and their families," he says.

Source: Health Behavior News Service, 30/06/2004