Exercise Substantially Reduces Risk of Depression

VitalityExplorers.com

The photo above is from the Stanford Dish hike.

This is one of my favorite places to exercise on the planet. Please comment below about what you like to do to exercise.

Today’s post focuses on why we should exercise to help our mental health.

A systematic review and meta-analysis paper just published in JAMA Psychiatry concluded: “small doses of physical activity were associated with substantially lower risks of depression.

The paper reviewed 15 prospective studies and more than two million person-years of data. They found even modest amounts of exercise were associated with lower risk of depression. The chart uses an obscure measurement of exercise called mMET-h/wk.

It is important to understand the study found 150 minutes per week (about 21 minutes per day) of brisk walking was the amount of exercise needed to reduce the risk of depression. (See chart below)

The study found a similar association between a small amount of exercise and a decreased risk of major depression. (See chart below)

Finally, depressive symptoms decreased significantly with just a small amount of exercise. (See chart below)

Here are the conclusions from the study:

This meta-analysis found an association between physical activity and incident depression. Assuming causality, 1 in 9 cases of depression might have been prevented if everybody in the population was active at the level of current health recommendations.

Vitality Explorer Analysis and Recommendations

This is an elite study in an excellent journal. It represents the best possible evidence.

The data is clear: Exercise Helps Prevent Depression

My take is we should initiate a global exercise movement to help reverse the epidemic of mental health issues that plague our world today.

Please connect with me if you are interested in collaborating. Here is my email: am@daretobevital.com

Please post your comments below and please share this post with your network.

Reference

JAMA Psychiatry | OriginalInvestigation
Association Between Physical Activity and Risk of Depression

A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

IMPORTANCE Depression is the leading cause of mental health–related disease burden and may be reduced by physical activity, but the dose-response relationship between activity and depression is uncertain.

OBJECTIVE To systematically review and meta-analyze the dose-response association between physical activity and incident depression from published prospective studies of adults.

DATA SOURCES PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and the reference lists of systematic reviews retrieved by a systematic search up to December 11, 2020, with no language limits. The date of the search was November 12, 2020.

STUDY SELECTION We included prospective cohort studies reporting physical activity at 3 or more exposure levels and risk estimates for depression with 3000 or more adults and 3 years or longer of follow-up.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS Data extraction was completed independently by 2 extractors and cross-checked for errors. A 2-stage random-effects dose-response meta-analysis was used to synthesize data. Study-specific associations were estimated using generalized least-squares regression and the pooled association was estimated by combining the study-specific coefficients using restricted maximum likelihood.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The outcome of interest was depression, including (1) presence of major depressive disorder indicated by self-report of physician diagnosis, registry data, or diagnostic interviews and (2) elevated depressive symptoms established using validated cutoffs for a depressive screening instrument.

RESULTS Fifteen studies comprising 191 130 participants and 2 110 588 person-years were included. An inverse curvilinear dose-response association between physical activity and depression was observed, with steeper association gradients at lower activity volumes; heterogeneity was large and significant (I2 = 74%; P < .001). Relative to adults not reporting any activity, those accumulating half the recommended volume of physical activity (4.4 marginal metabolic equivalent task hours per week [mMET-h/wk]) had 18% (95% CI, 13%-23%) lower risk of depression. Adults accumulating the recommended volume of 8.8 mMET hours per week had 25% (95% CI, 18%-32%) lower risk with diminishing potential benefits and higher uncertainty observed beyond that exposure level. There were diminishing additional potential benefits and greater uncertainty at higher volumes of physical activity. Based on an estimate of exposure prevalences among included cohorts, if less active adults had achieved the current physical activity recommendations, 11.5% (95% CI, 7.7%-15.4%) of depression cases could have been prevented.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE This systematic review and meta-analysis of associations between physical activity and depression suggests significant mental health benefits from being physically active, even at levels below the public health recommendations. Health practitioners should therefore encourage any increase in physical activity to improve mental health.