United States: The experts have suggested that steps that we take each day could provide help in lowering depression symptoms.
More about the news
According to a recent study, whose findings published on Monday in JAMA Network Open Journal revealed that the higher the daily steps, the lower the depressive symptoms.
According to Dr. Bruno Bizzozero-Peroni, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Health and Social Research Centre, University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, “Our study provides further evidence that encouraging people to be active, regardless of the type or intensity of the activity, is an effective strategy for preventing depression,” CNN reported.
About study details
The study was conducted as a meta-analysis of 33 investigations undertaken with over 96,000 adults.
That means the number of steps associated with decreased levels of depression is not as many as you would expect, said Dr. Karmel Choi, clinical psychologist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Choi was not the author of the research.
“We typically hear it’s good to get 10,000 steps a day, but here, even 7,000 steps seem to translate to better mental health,” Stubbs added.
Remarkably, any accretion in your daily steps, as few as 1,000 more steps in a day, can be beneficial– this could decrease the chances of future depression by approximately 9 percent, according to Dr. Brendon Stubbs of King’s College London in a statement.
What more are the experts stating?
However, as they report, the existing studies were mostly observational and included the ‘general population’ with no focus on those with clinical depression, which means researchers can’t tell whether taking steps affects depression or whether ‘depressed people’ don’t take as many steps, Choi said.
Presently, the advise is based on time, such as 150 minuted per week of walk done in moderate to vigorous intensity, as the expert added.
Some limitations to the study make further research necessary, but the significance of the present study is not shocking, with more movement resulting in a reduced level of depression symptoms.
According to her, “Step count is a nice proxy for physical activity, which has been consistently shown to have beneficial effects on depression risk,” CNN Health added.
“That said, we should remember that step counts best capture certain kinds of movement, such as walking or running, and may be less well-suited to capture activities like yoga,” she added.
Furthermore, “Choose the metric that is most motivating to you,” Choi noted.
“Whether it’s steps or hours, the mental health literature consistently suggests that moving to some extent is better than not moving at all,” she added.