A new study has once more confirmed what we all already knew – people who exercise regularly are significantly less likely to be depressed. Conducted at UCL, the study discovered that those who are physically active 3 times a week are 16% less likely to be depressed.
“This effect was seen across the whole population and not just those at high risk of clinical depression. The more physically active people were, the fewer depressive symptoms reported.”
Dr Snehal Pinto Pereira
They also found that this link could be self-reinforcing, with those who were depressed at a young age less likely to exercise later.
There are many questions about movement and depression, many ways to understand it. If a choice/reaction of “dormancy” in the young is not a kind of self-care then is it a kind of protest? Are the benefits of exercise lost in the memories of some? How easily can these benefits be remembered and reactivated? What is the best was to achieve this? Dynamic Running Therapy offers a practise of movement whereby no matter how little movement we engage in – walking or running – we look to the body to inform us of emotional states. This facilitates holistic healing – reengaging the relationship between body and soul and allowing movement to help us travel with and through whatever we are holding.
(The research used data from 11,000 people born in 1958 who were tracked for 50 years. JAMA Psychiatry)