Hey. It is Sunday. I have changed bedding, mopped the bathroom floor, done dishes, done laundry and written most of a psych report (why don’t people look on the backs of checklists?). I have HAD IT. No mas. Break time. The sun is shining. It is around 75 degrees outside (screwy weather) and I am heading for the deck.
Sunday has become my work around the house day. Monday it is back to the real world and if I want to get anything done at home, it has to be done Sunday.
Heaven help me when I am no longer working and don’t have the press of deadlines. Nothing will ever get done!
Feeling good about getting a pup. We picked the lively and inquisitive one. I know she may be more of a handful than any of her sisters but I need a walking buddy. I have been “going to walk the dog” for more than 60 years and going to walk by myself feels wrong.
Bringing me to the promised topic, as well as the promised nagging ?. Exercising is great for avoiding depression!
We have talked about the crazy percent of older people who are depressed and the even crazier percent of older VIPs who are depressed.
Right now many of us are not going to improve our visual standing anytime in the near future. Gotta live with that. That leaves us with fighting the second dragon, depression.
Our friends whom we have not met yet in Nord-Trondelag county Norway have been participating in a huge, as in HUGE, longitudinal health study that started in 1984. One of the things they were measuring was the relationship between exercise and depression. To begin with they found an exercise a day keeps the psychiatrist away. Those who did not exercise at the start of the study were 44% more likely to develop depression than exercisers. Total amount of exercise and depression were negatively correlated (more exercise went with less depression). However, they also found as little as one hour of exercise a WEEK reduced chances of depression by 12%!
Similar studies in Sweden and the United Kingdom found similar results. The benefits of exercise were seen in everyone, including older folks, and the intensity of the exercise did not matter. Easy was OK. Small doses were OK. The idea was to move.
Of course – pushing my luck with some of you; I know – aerobic exercise and focused attention meditation twice a week has been found to improve depression in two months or less. That research comes out of Rutgers. The Rutgers study sequenced the two, one after the other, but it is possible to get both exercise and focused attention in one activity. I am talking about the Eastern practices such as yoga and tai chi.
OK. End of lecture. Just hoping to find one convert out there somewhere. It really does work. Any brave soul out there who wants to try it? All you have to lose is your depression.
October 22nd, 2017
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HOme