Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 133 posts

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#81

Post by DanBC »

pjc50 wrote: post #64

Just to avoid confusion, not all clinical depression is fully treatable by exercise; I've known several people who were severely depressed while also being non-car-owning regular cyclists. Sometimes antidepressants are required. Sometimes therapy is required. Please avoid turning this into "why don't you just exercise".

> not all clinical depression is fully treatable by exercise;

We can expand this: exercise is moderately better than nothing to treat depression, unless you use good quality studies in which case we don't know if it's better than nothing or not.

http://www.cochrane.org/CD004366/DEPRESSN_exercise-for-depre...

> Exercise is moderately more effective than no therapy for reducing symptoms of depression.

[...]

> The reviewers also note that when only high-quality studies were included, the difference between exercise and no therapy is less conclusive.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#82

Post by oligopoly »

szemet wrote: post #63
throwaway0255 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People have a tendency to dramatically overestimate the calories they're burning

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=male+80+kg+1+hour+runn... = 1050 calories

That's stretching it a LOT. Your body adapts to the exercise and you use lot less energy. Closer to half of that

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#83

Post by hellofunk »

DanBC wrote: post #79
hellofunk wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to start doing some physical activities soon, but that's not going to cause me to be less depressed How do you know? I think you are being unfair to yourself to so easily dismiss what exercise can do for your moods. When I'm feeling down, getting my heart rate up for 45 minutes totally turns around the day. I don't know the exact reason, maybe all the rapid blood flow or found energy, whatever it is, it is n…

> How do you know? Because researchers keep failing to find evidence of effectiveness.

Mayo Clinic is a respected place, and they seem to think there is a link:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-...

Even if there was no evidence, surely the testimonies of many others right here on this page would at least be worth the possibility that it could be effective.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#84

Post by seppin »

legulere wrote: post #71
xj9 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"why don't you exercise?" is always a valid question tho; unless you are physically incapable of doing so, you should, and you're unquestionably damaging your health if you don't.

Being depressed might prevent you from exercising.

> Being depressed might prevent you from exercising.

Would being depressed prevent you from taking anti-depression medicine? Seeking help from a doctor?

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#85

Post by naasking »

throwaway0255 wrote: post #65
dyarosla wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wanted to point out- 350 cal/hour is inaccurately low for even light exercise, and exceptionally low if you are overweight. Properly doing exercise and keeping at it won't result in joint pains or aches, and may also uplift your mood due to endorphins+more. IMO your reasoning for avoiding exercise should be revisited.

It's not inaccurately low at all. You're basing your estimate on perfect/ideal scenarios, I'm basing it on the kind of thing the average overweight person trying to lose weight does when they spend an hour in a gym. They walk on a treadmill or they do more intense things with a lot of breaks in between. Also, there is no proper form of exercise for an obese person that won't cause pains or aches, it doesn't exist. We…

> Also, there is no proper form of exercise for an obese person that won't cause pains or aches

Swimming. Doing laps is a great calorie burner too.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#86

Post by hackermailman »

seizethecheese wrote: post #58

For those still unconvinced, I'll add another anecdote to this thread. Morning exercise completely cured my intractable insomnia.

Schools in Canada have kids work an exercise bike to get their heart rate up before class which helped eliminate disruptive behavior and being unable to concentrate on lessons. I tried it on myself in the morning before working through texts, definitely works.

Now I have an elaborate spin bike setup, large TV playing lectures and a bluetooth headset to hear them. I ride the bike for the entire lecture, usually 45mins-1hr15mins, and recently incorporated interval training so whenever a student in the recorded lecture asks a question, it's always one that could have been answered by reading the assigned material beforehand like the student is supposed to do, so I go as hard as possible on the bike until the professor returns to the lecture. After I have no problems concentrating for another hour or so on the assigned reading or trying the proofs in the lecture notes whereas before I as always fidgety sitting for so long during a lecture not wanting to spend yet more time staring at proofs.

I also agree with the other poster exercise usually doesn't equate weight loss since I didn't lose any weight until I started making my own food and avoiding all the takeout junk I was eating. Like everybody else I overestimated the amount of calories burned so feasted on huge pasta dishes and baguette sandwiches.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#87

Post by tomcam »

jcousins wrote: post #16

I reversed diabetes with diet alone by doing my own research[1], taking charge of my health. I lost 180lbs in the process. No exercise (disabled). Very much a work in progress. I'm not rejecting the importance of exercise for health - I follow the general principal of eating to get healthy, exercising to get fit - but I think we skip over the absolute tragedy that is the Standard American Diet at our peril. Recoverin…

Amazing! Congratulations! You seriously rock.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#88

Post by tomcam »

Exercise does nothing to lighten my mood. I hate exercise in virtually all forms. Never experienced the "runner's high" or any kind of apparent dopamine production (not saying it didn't happen, just that I don't ever feel better with exercise).

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#89

Post by DanBC »

Boothroid wrote: post #57
pjc50 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that the UK sets its hypothyroidism threshold lower than other countries, so it's harder to get treated. But I don't have the stats to hand. > When it comes to chronic conditions and diseases of old age, you (or nobody) are the principal investigator. Well put. This is very important no matter what system you're in. It's a real problem when mental health conditions impair your judgement and ability to make…

Indeed, I used to have a non-British girlfriend and there seemed to be many cases like this where they will happily treat you outside the UK, but the NHS stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that perhaps the rest of the world has it right, and perhaps the NHS has it wrong. I suspect some important prof somewhere made a call at some point and now cannot go back on it case of losing face..

Over testing, over diagnosis, and over treatment are significant causes of harm in any health system.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#90

Post by hkmurakami »

jedrek wrote: post #21

I think it's amazing the way we've completely sidelined physical activity - not exercise per se, but any physical activity - in our western lives. Unless you live without a car, there is no requirement for you to walk more than 1000 steps during the day. Wake up, drive to work, sit at your desk, drive to a restaurant for dinner, drive home, plop down on your couch. Rinse, repeat. Even if you do decide to work out, it…

This sounds particularly American, rather than for the entire west.
Post reply on HN