Search
Related Links

 

 

Informative Articles

A Closer Look at Lower Back Pain Relief
As many as 8 out of 10 adults will experience back pain in their lifetime, and most of them will feel it in their lower back. When we consider that our lower back bears the brunt of our body weight, and that our back is made up of many vertebrae, a...

Healthy Supplements: A Healthy Option?
Do you have a pretty demanding and busy lifestyle? Are you part of the general population that has put itself into a health crisis due to poor eating habits and inadequate exercising? The neglect of taking some high demand needs by your body may...

HOW TO DIAGNOSE IMPOTENCE?
The inability of a male to sustain an erection for intercourse is termed as Erectile Dysfunction (ED) or male impotence. It affects one out of every ten men in America. As 30 million of men are affected due to ED and men in the age group 40 and...

Migraine Headaches - Effective Natural Treatment Methods!
Headaches are comprised of two major categories, primary and secondary. Headaches belonging to the primary group are not caused by underlying medical conditions while secondary headaches are the result of a medical condition such as...

Scientific research on Transcendental Meditation (TM)
Scientific research has shown that the most beneficial meditation technique is Transcendental Meditation (TM). The striking reduction of stress and anxiety caused by TM are 3 times greater than the effect caused by most meditation and relaxation...

 
The Ultimate Drug for Treating Depression

More and more researchers and physicians are coming to the conclusion that exercise can be as effective as antidepressants in reducing the symptoms of major depression.

Group or Solitary Both Work

Many studies have shown that exercise in a group setting is highly effective, and new research is beginning to suggest that solitary exercise, such as workouts at the gym or a daily jog, can be equally helpful.

Better Than Zoloft

Research on the subject has demonstrated that:
  • 10 months of regular, moderate exercise outperformed a leading antidepressant (Zoloft) in easing symptoms in young adults
  • 30-minute aerobic workouts done three to five times a week cut depressive symptoms by 50 percent in young adults


Boosts Energy

One probable cause is that exercise affects key brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine, but physical activity may also trigger positive changes in other areas, such as by boosting energy. A more intense exercise regimen may be the most effective for that purpose.

As depressed individuals may have trouble breaking into an exercise routine, however, starting on a small scale and building up may be the key to success.

Yahoo News November 6, 2005

Dr. Mercola's Comment:Over 20 million Americans suffer from depression. The World Health Organization identified major depression as the fourth leading cause of disease worldwide, causing more disability than heart attacks or strokes.

If you start to feel depressed, especially with the decreasing sunlight of winter in the northern hemisphere or the coming holidays, I would encourage you to review my signs and symptoms of depression page to help you understand if you suffer from this disease.

Fortunately, there has been an increasing acceptance in conventional medicine that there are better, safer and healthier alternatives to treating depression than prescribing an antidepressant.

More and more evidence is accumulating that for most people exercise is more powerful than drugs in treating


depression.For exercise, though, it needs to be used like a drug and must be prescribed very carefully. Going out for a simple walk after dinner will not likely provide as much benefit as a comprehensive exercise strategy.

It has been my experience that most Americans have a serious exercise debt. I've found patients need to move toward 90 minutes of cardiovascular exercise every day during the treatment phase to repay this exercise debt. Of course when you are feeling depressed the last thing you want to do is exercise intensely for 90 minutes, so you need to move gradually and as fast as your body will allow you to progress.

The key, as thearticle states,is to get started in some way, no matter how small. Fortunately, I have plenty of free tools to help you get started, including a comprehensive exercise guide and an exercise table you can use to monitor your progress.

It is also important to make sure you have a regular supply of either fish or cod liver oil, as the animal-based omega-3 fats of DHA and EPA are probably the single most important nutrient to battling depression. Avoiding sugar and grains will help normalize insulin and leptin levels, which is also another powerful tool in addressing depression.

Bright light exposure is crucial to prevent SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and the use of full-spectrum lights in the winter is a vital tool in helping solve the depression mystery. We will be offering some of the best and least expensive full-spectrum bulbs in the next few weeks for this purpose.

I also encourage you to review the strategies Paul Chek and Dr. Ben Lerner share with readers every week in my 'eHealthy News You Can Use' newsletter.



About the author:

This article is reprinted from Mercola.com, the world's #1 most visited and trusted natural/alternative health website. For a limited time only, you can take the FREE "Metabolic Type Test" to help you learn the right foods for your particular body type so you can achieve optimal fitness & health. Just go to http://www.mercola.com/forms/mt_test.htm right now to take this quick test!

 

National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine offers access to health information for consumer, patient, and physicians ...
www.nlm.nih.gov
 
Health and Medical Information produced by doctors - MedicineNet.com
Doctor-produced health and medical information written for you to make informed decisions about your health concerns.
www.medicinenet.com
 
Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory
Collection of sites for health professionals, with sections on specific disciplines, organizations, continuing education, conferences, publications, ...
dir.yahoo.com
 
MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical dictionaries, directories and publications.
medlineplus.gov
 
Medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life ... The practice of medicine combines both science as the evidence base and art in the ...
en.wikipedia.org
 
Journal Home - Nature Medicine
Nature Medicine has a vacancy for a Locum Assistant Editor for six months. The position involves working in all aspects of the editorial process, ...
www.nature.com
 
The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on ...
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial ...
content.nejm.org
 
eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base
eMedicine features up-to-date, searchable, peer-reviewed medical journals, online physician reference textbooks, and a full-text article database in 62 ...
www.emedicine.com
 
Open Directory - Health: Medicine
the entire directory, only in Health/Medicine. Top: Health: Medicine (11429). Description · Medical Specialties (4888); Surgery (2265) ...
dmoz.org
 
the www virtual library biosciences medicine
www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/wwwvl/ - Similar pages
 
Medicine - home
Bimonthly journal covering the latest results in clinical investigation relevant to hospital and office practice.
www.md-journal.com
 
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine serves as adviser to the nation to improve health.
www.iom.edu
 
ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News
Medical Research News. Health news on everything from cancer to nutrition. Full-text, images, updated daily.
www.sciencedaily.com
 
Google Directory - Health > Medicine
Search only in Medicine Search the Web. Medicine. Health > Medicine, Go to Directory Home. Categories. Alternative Medicine (6308) Basic Sciences (66) ...
www.google.com
 
the world wide web virtual library biosciences medicine
www.mcb.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine.html - Similar pages
 
PLoS Medicine - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal
PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal published ... Every issue of PLoS Medicine contains a selection of readers' responses. ...
medicine.plosjournals.org
 
Medicine On-Line - Medicine Online -The International Medical Journal
Medicine Online - independent and peer reviewed journal published by Priory Medical Journals - priory.com.
www.priory.com
 
Entrez PubMed
PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Stanford University School of Medicine
Home Page of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
med.stanford.edu
 
Medicine OnLine
Meds.com offers medical information and education on cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia) and HIV / AIDS for patients, ...
www.meds.com