That walking is beneficial to our mood is something well accepted and also demonstrated by science, but here another piece has been added regarding our knowledge about lifestyle and how it affects physical and mental health. A few weeks ago a new study has been published in the journal Depression and Anxiety by a team of Thessaly University, Greece (Morres et al, Aerobic exercise for adult patients with major depressive disorder in mental health services: A systematic review and meta?analysis, Oct 2018) with important results about the beneficial effect of aerobic exercise.
The scientists, led by dr. Ioannis Morres, have indeed observed that aerobic exercise has a large antidepressant effect and right on persons who suffer from major depression. Aerobic exercise is a physical activity, performed at low intensity and for a prolonged periods of time, where the synthesis of ATP, namely the molecule that gives the energy to the cells, occurs in presence of oxygen, to this category of physical exercises belong activities such as walking, jogging, cycling and swimming, but always not in an intense way and for a time longer than 20 minutes. The research has studied the data of 455 persons, all with major depression, and has analyzed the results after a training consisting of aerobic exercises performed for 45 minutes three times per week and for two months and half. The study has shown that aerobic exercise has a significantly large antidepressant effect by paving the way for more efficient treatments for what concerns depression, thus improving the life of patients and their families but also, from the point of view of prevention, by demonstrating that little changes in our lifestyle may have amazing effects on the health of both body and mind.
