A recent study reveals that exercise may not provide the relief from depression that has been assumed for years. I don’t know what to think. At first blush the results don’t make sense to me. Consistent, vigorous exercise should surely provide some relief from mild to moderate anxiety and depression yet this study suggests otherwise.
I am curious to see the results of future studies that are sure to follow-up in an effort to validate the findings and would advise researchers to ensure that study participants are getting meaningful, consistent, and vigorous exercise.
I say this because one article about the study suggests researchers weren’t actually requiring a subset of participants to engage in meaningful, consistent, and vigorous exercise during the life of the study.
The article reads in part:
“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.
This approach produced good results in terms of encouraging people to do more over a sustained period of time – something which could have benefits to their general physical health.”
Did you catch that?
- “were also given advice” on how to increase their activity levels
- “it was up to individual patients what activity they chose to increase and by how much”
What does this mean?
We have a curious study that may discourage people from pursuing a substantially more active lifestyle, because the researchers failed to require certain study participants to actually engage in consistent, increased exercise levels over a prolonged period. At least that is my understanding from a couple news articles such as this one from BBC News.
Let’s hope the next study takes the exercise component more seriously.
What say you?
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