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Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?

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Re: Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?

#71
The studies that show this are generally aggressively biased against people who do physical labor for subsistence and are worn out or exhausted to the point of depression.

If studies showed that African women who walk miles and miles collecting water somehow are less depressed than women with local water, I'll be more sold that exercise does something special..

Re: Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?

#72
post #17

People do not discipline.

Bipolar disorder patients were able to adhere to ketogenic diet with great outcomes [1] (diet adherence for bipolar disorder was 95%).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBsjhpphowI - 18:20 and on.

Re: Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we are already seeing concerning GI issues emerging from prolonged usage Could you elaborate? I have been looking for a scientific discussion on that topic and coming up with not much.

Here are some hits from a search for “studies on GI problems associated with GLP1's.” I have not read them start to finish but it’s a starting point for you to do your own searches off of. I used Kagi, for reference. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10213739/ https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(25)... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK551568/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9…

Ah, okay, I was thinking you might have run across something more recent. The latest science seems to be going mostly in the opposite direction, saying that with additional data it looks like early concerns about things like pancreatitis (and worse, cancer) were overblown. If there are some newly identified adverse reactions I'm always interested to learn more about them.

Re: Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?

#75

Just because a thing is true doesn't mean you can apply it. There are vast numbers of active ingredients discovered or developed that are effective in curing many deceases but there aren't "drugs"/pills with it because we haven't found a delivery mechanism for them to be effective where they should in the human body. Going back to the subject: Have you ever been clinically depressed or dealt with people in that predi…

The article says that 41% of mental health professionals never recommend exercise. Is it really the case that these 41% have only patients with the severest forms of depression who struggle to get out of bed at all? Or do they have many patients who get out of bed for work and such, and could force themselves to exercise, but don't know that it's worth the hurdle because they haven't been told about the mental health benefits?

Re: Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?

#76
Has anyone looked into mental health, inflammation and keto? I looked into it a while back and it seemed promising.

I spent a while reading a bunch of papers on it. First of all, keto lowers inflammation. Inflammation harms cognitive function, especially executive function. Also, a bunch of neurological disorders are associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, and keto acts as a "backup" metabolic pathway. (i.e. if your glucose engine is "misfiring", you can burn fat instead, and in some cases that makes the problem go away.)

The trick is adherence. Carbs are very addictive! I was never able to make the diet stick. (Turns out bread is very tasty...)

But from all I've read, it seems like it would help with a bunch of issues I have. So I thought it would be worth mentioning here, in case it helps someone.

Re: Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?

#77
What do you mean exercise isn't treated like real medicine? Doctors have been trying to advocate for people to be more active to help with basically every major health issue for decades. People complain about "ThEy JuSt WaNt To SeLl YoU pIlLs" as if it's not the people who want to solve their health issues by just taking the correct combination of magic pills.

You can be sold exercise too. Physical therapy exists. Personal trainers exist. Gym memberships, gym influencers, gym culture, and gym products all exist. It's not the inability to sell you a product that stops people from exercising.

Re: Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?

#79
post #74

> So why isn’t it treated like real medicine? Because exercise is free, pills are not.

More importantly - the cost of the medical assistance to help someone get out of the house and physically train is much more expensive than a drug.

If you want to prescribe exercise for someone with this level of depression, you need to prescribe someone to remove the barriers to exercise.

Re: Exercise works for depression. So why isn't it treated like real medicine?

#80

What do you mean exercise isn't treated like real medicine? Doctors have been trying to advocate for people to be more active to help with basically every major health issue for decades. People complain about "ThEy JuSt WaNt To SeLl YoU pIlLs" as if it's not the people who want to solve their health issues by just taking the correct combination of magic pills. You can be sold exercise too. Physical therapy exists. Pe…

> What do you mean exercise isn't treated like real medicine?

It's in the article. How doctors actually recommend it (the complaint of many patients that they are only told, or only hear, "exercise more") versus how medical treatments usually provide plans and guidance. Telling people to exercise more (mostly) doesn't help (especially for people already dealing with reduced motivation from a disorder like depression). Clear, actionable guidance, possibly with a monitored program, that's something patients have more chance of following through on.

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