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Brian Johnson breaks down a clinical trial comparing exercise, Zoloft, and both together for depression. After four months, exercise worked as well as the drug. Six months later, the exercise group had fewer relapses.
Brian Johnson breaks down a clinical trial comparing exercise, Zoloft, and both together for depression. After four months, exercise worked as well as the drug. Six months later, the exercise group had fewer relapses.
Hi, this is Brian with another mini chapter from A Philosopher's Notes. This one's called Exercise vs. Zoloft. Did you know exercise is scientifically proven to be as effective as Zoloft in reducing depression? Yep. Here's the study. Scientists took a bunch of clinically depressed peeps and randomly assigned them to three groups for four months. One group exercised, one group took an antidepressant, Zoloft, and another group tried Exercise Plus Zoloft. The exercise group participated in three 45 minute supervised workouts per week, consisting of cycling or walking and jogging at moderate to high intensity. At the end of the four months, all three groups showed significant improvements in their well being, with exercise proving to be just as effective as the antidepressant. And get this, when the researchers checked in six months later, the exercise group was significantly less likely to have relapsed into depression than the medication group. That is huge. Makes you wonder why the results of that clinical trial aren't advertised on every other commercial. Huh? Must be because anything worth advertising has to have a frightening list of possible side effects or something. Seriously though, steps up on soapbox right now. Exercise please. Pretty please. Our bodies were made to move. And exercise has got to be the cheapest insurance policy against terminal funkiness out there. So get your exercise on. Remember, exercise versus Zoloft. Science shows that exercise can be as effective as antidepressants in reducing depression. So think about that. If you're currently on that medication, talk to your doctor about the power of exercise and start getting on it. Make it a consistent part of your life. You couldn't pay me enough to not exercise. I know what I'm like when I don't exercise and it's not pretty. So there you go. Let's exercise. Hope you enjoyed. Look forward to sharing more with you soon. Have an awesome day.
