A growing epidemic in America is depression. Physicians are able to prescribe drugs to help with the symptoms of depression, but other therapeutic methods have been studied and show great results in recovery. Therapeutic Physical Fitness has shown to reduce depression and anxiety. Ihas been confirmed through experiments that physical exercise can be as effective as antidepressant drugs and some cases suggest that it better prevents symptom recurrence.
According to a study published in the European Journal of Public Health in August 2005, Effects of physical exercise on depression neuron doctrine stress hormones and physiological fitness in adolescent females with depressive symptoms, physical exercise was shown to reduce both physiological and psychological indicators of mild to moderate depression in adolescent females. 1 A group of researchers in Thailand worked with a group of 49 adolescent female volunteers. Approximately half of the women were in a control group for the first part of the study. The women participants all showed symptoms of mild-to-moderate sub clinical depression. The control group of subjects continued their regular daily routines for eight weeks. While the other half of the subjects engaged in group jogging for five 50 minute sessions per week.
The results in this study showed great psychological improvement in depression symptoms. The participants were measured by a survey known as the CES-D scale. Theadolescents in the control group (group A) showed no improvement on this scale in the first eight weeks. The adolescents who participated in daily exercise 5 times a week (group B) showed to drop from approximately 21 points down to approximately 13 points on the CES-D depression rating scale. Perhaps even more interesting after the eight weeks of exercise, group B went back into their regular routine of lack of exercise for an additional eight weeks and their