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2005-02-13

Let your exercise be your medicine, and your medicine be your exercise?

"Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food"
Hippocrates 460 - 359 BC

In this case, the medicine is not even food. It is exercise, intense exercise.

A study randomly assigned 80 people diagnosed with mild to moderate depression to one of five groups. One group did moderately intense aerobic exercise on a stationary bike or threadmill for 30 minutes 3 days a the week, the second group 5 days a week, the third and fourth groups uses the same equipment at lower intensity also for 3 days and 5 days a week respectively. The last group, considered a placebo group, did only stretching and flexibility exercises for about 15 minutes 3 days a week.

The result. After 12 weeks, those who did the most intense exercise had 50% fewer symtoms of depression, 30% less for those on lower intensity exercise, and 29% less for the placebo group. The number of days a week did not influence the results.

So, let your exercise be your medicine, and your medicine be your exercise?

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