Exercise and Mental Health?

The Cochrane Review (the most influential review of its kind in the world) has produced a landmark metaanalysis of studies on exercise and depression. They picked 23 rigorous studies out of a pool of more than one hundred. The conclusion was that exercise had a “large clinical impact” on depression.

Among the studies that support the theory that exercise directly causes improved mental well-being (as opposed to vice-versa) is one that looked at the effect of exercise on older adults with clinical depression (Blumenthal et al., 1999). The authors compared exercise to a commonly prescribed anti-depressant medication (Zoloft), and found that both were equally effective in reducing depressive symptoms. In contrast to these results, a group of researchers from the Netherlands found that exercise may not be nearly as important as genetics in determining one’s mental well-being (Stubbe et al., 2007). These researchers looked at pairs of identical twins in which one twin exercised significantly more than the other, and found that there was no significant difference in their levels of happiness.

Diet and nutrition can be beneficial to psychological well-being. A supporting study by Hakkarainen et al. in 2004 observed 29,133 older male smokers. Participants in the study recorded their meals, and the researchers examined those men who consumed more fatty acids from margarine and junk food. The researchers found that ingestion of those foods was associated with increased depression, anxiety, and insomnia. However, in contrast to these results, a group of researchers examined the improvements in well-being associated with exercise or micronutrient supplementation. After 17 weeks, the researchers followed up with study participants and found that neither supplementation nor exercise had a significant impact upon the well-being of the participants.

http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/science-of-happiness/exercise/

Take it for what it's worth.  I can say with confidence that the best times of my life included physical training.  

What's Driving You Crazy?

Emily writes like I like it - and covers a lot of ground.  Read on to find out why low sugar intake - counter intuitively since the "conventional wisdom" is you need to eat a minimum of 150g/day of carbohydrate to adequately fuel your brain - may be the superior way to feed the grey matter in that bucket you call your head.

"The modern prescription of high carbohydrate, low fat diets and eating snacks between meals has coincided with an increase in obesity, diabetes, and and increase in the incidence of many mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. In addition, many of these disorders are striking the population at younger ages. While most people would agree that diet has a lot to do with the development of obesity and diabetes, many would disagree that what we eat has much to do with our mental health and outlook. I believe that what we eat has a lot to do with the health of our brains, though of course mental illness (like physical illness) has multifactorial causes, and by no means should we diminish the importance of addressing all the causes in each individual. But let's examine the opposite of the modern high carbohydrate, low fat, constant snacking lifestyle and how that might affect the brain."
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201104/your-brain-ketones?page=2

Depression In Men

Interesting read.

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20521449,00.html

What is the relation of depression to a fitness and nutrition blog?  These three things are intimately connected.

Exercise and nutrition are directly linked to depression, both in observational studies and by models. Probable ingredients necessary to fuel depression include:

*lack of sunlight

*lack of activity, in particular, intense activity

*excess carbohydrate intake

*any of a number of vitamin deficiencies

*chronic lack of sleep (leading to a the insomnia-depression reinforcing loop)

*chronic stressors accelerate all of the above

Considerations for prevention/cure: 

*exercise hard and short.  Start with Tabata intervals, up to five days per week:  Work for 20s/rest for 10s.  Start with four intervals of work, and increase to eight intervals over time.  Add some version of strength training.  Train the least amount necessary, not the most possible, unless you really enjoy the training.

*reduce carbs to a max of 100g/day, by eliminating grains, legumes, most dairy, sugar drinks, and with a limit of one serving of fruit daily.  Use a glucose meter to help identify those foods that make your blood sugars go high, and eliminate or reduce them

*get some sun on your skin every day (mid-day sun needed during fall/winter)

*get some sun in your eyes, unaltered by sunglasses, daily (no, this does not mean "look at the sun")

*get tested for vitamin D levels and take action according to the results

*increase your interaction with real people - not virtual ones

*decrease TV time, decrease alcohol intake, and substitute activities like writing or socializing.  People need positive human contact to feel good.  In one study, people who spent fifteen minutes a day writing about the most painful experiences in their lives drastically shifted their mortality curves compared to a control group - writing can be powerful therapy.  Start with 60s/day, and set a goal to increase towards the 15 minutes/day

Lastly - do what you already know works for you, perhaps with some supplementation from the list above.