Exercise is known to ease the symptoms of depression. But does depression change the way the body responds to exercise?
A new study suggests that clinical depression may hamper the body’s ability to recover from physical activity, prolonging the amount of time it takes for a depressed person’s heart rate to slow down and return to normal after a workout. Although it may sound minor, some research suggests that a difference of even just a few beats a minute during post-exercise recovery is associated with a shorter life span.
Scientists say the findings may help shed light on the well-known link between depression and heart disease. Studies show that depressed people have an increased risk of heart attacks, and heart patients who develop depression die sooner than heart patients without depression. full article
I have advised many times on subjects such as this that the results need to be interpreted over time. Plot the results on a graph and observe changes over a period to finalise a hypothesis. This is ridiculous to look at such a short term bout of exercise and people's response to it. Think about it. Most depressed people don't exercise. Oh I've got an idea. Let's give them a stress test and see how they do. Not. All exercise has a "specific adaptation response". If you're not use to walking up and down hills it's going to be hard no matter who you are. Living in NYC for 15 years I am use to walking 4-6 miles per day. My relatives from Australia, who by the way are quite active in some ways, got very tired walking around with us. This doesn't mean they are unfit. They are just not used to walking so much. Most programs are going to take between 8-12 weeks of conditioning. So please don't get depressed about this article. The best thing you can do if you are depressed is to get up and move everyday! For free exercise advice
Exercise helps treat depression.
If a depressed person exercises over a prolonged period of time, does the post-exercise heart rate recovery improve?
I have seen this so much in my chiropractic practice. As patients begin moving better, they exercise more. As a welcome side effect, the depression tends to decrease. It is difficult to know if it is from the improved neurology (from the expert chiropractor) or the exercise. Regardless. It is great to see the benefits.
So the solution is more anti-depressants? Did pharmecutical MNCs providing some of the funding for this research?
As a commenter above said, nothing like providing people who suffer from depression w/another reason to feel depressed.
This makes a lot of sense. Before I was on antidepressants I was on fight or flight status 24/7. Would like to see more studies on this.
"Something about being depressed probably has some influence on the circuitry of the brain that causes the stress response to become dysfunctional.”
ARRGH. When will researchers learn to be more careful about attributing causality. Maybe the abnormal stress response causes vulnerability to depression. Maybe a 3rd variable causes vulnerability to dysfunctional stress response AND depression. At this point, all they have is a correlation. And correlation is not causation.
Has the pharmaceutical company that sponsored this research submitted Phase III results to FDA for the approval of Wankezenc? Wankezenc tests show that in a statistically significant number of cases (51%) the difference of 3.7 beats a minute can be reduced to statistically significant 3.6 beats a minute after only 2 months of Wankezenc 10mg dosage taken daily (expected cost $28,000).
Disclosure: I've made up "Wankezenc" all other details are true!!
This seems eminently logical, as it is well established that regular exercise can lift mood, as well as mitigate a whole host of mild mental maladies (adhd etc). Why should that relationship work both ways, meaning being depressed impair exercise quality? The human body is absurdly complex, and the mind and soul arise from and interact profoundly with our physical selves.
the key point here is "acute". Regular bouts of variable intensity exercise(s) that uses your brain and not just your body are the surest way to improve your stress response.
Specifically, I believe that we need a to create a perfect fusion of playfulness, intensity and challenge to experience the most change both physically and mentally.
With regards to activities that stimulate this type of demand in direct response to Mike (from NYC)
Watch David Breashears' "Storm Over Everest" for the most profound and simple explanation for why people risk their lives climbing mountains. I was most struck by the interviews of the climbers including Beck Weathers response.
I once met a French guy in a refuge on the Swiss Alps (while hiking) who told me that he started climbing/hiking in order to get over his profound depression.
I remember him telling me that the strenuous effort (such as rock climbing) sent his body into a state of almost physical pain and that was the only thing that completely freed his mind from negative thoughts and gave him mental clarity.
He went off medications and instead started exercising everyday...
I wonder how long a delayed recovery lasts into recovery time. More specifically, how might it relate to soreness and stiffness over the next couple of days of recovery time? From personal experience, when I am too sore, I don't want to work out again. There might be an optimal degree of exercise intensity for those with depression to maximize the positive results and minimize other factors that would contribute to heart-risks and reduced motivation.
I wonder how long was the period of the experiment conducted. I mean to say - depressed persons are given to lethargy, and therefore physically unfit and their heart beats will be more than a person who is not depressed and more active, and hence fitter person.
If the depressed person is measured over a long enough period where she gets to be fitter, perhaps the heart beats difference may narrow down?
I wonder if this factor of the depressed person's physical condition to start off with and its changes is taken into account in the experiment.
Is it true that omega 3/6 fatty acids can negate some of these harmfull conditions of stress and exercise on the heart even in a depressed state.
Often a disorder -- psychiartic or other may preclude ameliorative efforts which are usually quite beneficial to the general population.
Your essay is on exercise and its effect on depression. Another example is the use of the SSRIs anti-deoressants (Prozac, Paxil and many of the others).
One symptom (of many) used to diagnose depression is a significant loweing of sex drive (compared to baseline behavior). But, frequently one side effect common to the use of an SSRI is less or no interest in sex.
The link to the November Issue of " Psychophysiology " brought me to Pubmed which pulled up a short abstract only,so I was not able to access the entire study.
The information provided here is that the depressed subjects did not recover as well as non-depressed control subjects following a stress test.
What about the other variables? Where the depressed subjects taking anti-depressants and how might the medication affected their performance?
What was the activity level of the clinically depressed patients, as compared to that of the control group, outside of the controlled environment?
I have been both an exerciser,and someone who has suffered from periods of Clinical Depression; there have been times when I worked out at levels of high intensity for three hours a day, daily.
When I was clinically depressed, I could barely get out of bed to brush my teeth, let alone engage in any official "exercise."
As someone who has both studied psychology at the graduate level, and has suffered through numerous bouts of clinical depression, I find it highly unlikely that those who are clinically depressed in general are psychologically or physiologically capable of exercising at comparable levels to non-depressed controls.
Can the author of this article please provide the reader with more details about the exercise level of the subjects outside of the one stress test?
who are not depressed.
