Brisk walk may be enough to fight off depression: Study

   Brisk walk may be enough to fight off depression: Stud

You do not need to a hit the gym, and lift heavy weights, but small doses of physical activity, such as a brisk walking, may substantially help a lower the risk of a depression, suggests a study.

The study, led by a team of an international researchers including from Universities of Cambridge and Sydney, showed that about 1.25 hours of brisk a walking per week could yield an 18 per cent lower risk of a  depression compared with not an exercising.

"Most benefits are realised when a moving from no a activity to at least some," the study authors wrote, in the paper published in the journal JAMA a Psychiatry.

"Our findings have important new an implications for a health practitioners making lifestyle recommendations, especially to inactive individuals who may perceive the current a recommended target (of exercise) as unrealistic," they added.

The team conducted a meta-analysis of 15 studies involving over 190,000 people to determine how much exercise was needed to a reduce a depression.

The findings revealed that moving up to an "activity volume equivalent to 2.5 hours of a  brisk walking per week was a associated with 25 per cent lower risk of a depression.

The findings are consistent with a previous studies that found people who exercised had about 43 per cent fewer days of a poor mental health.

"Even just walking just three times a week seems to give people better mental health than not exercising at all," study author Adam Chekroud, an assistant adjunct professor of a psychiatry at Yale University, was quoted as saying to CNN.

Exercising in 45-minute sessions three to a five times a week was the most beneficial for improving mental health, the 2018 study found. However, even doing household chores reduced poor mental health days by a about 10 per cent, the study said.

Another study published in 2020 found that even light exercise helped protect children  a against developing depression. The 2020 study a revealed that 60 minutes of simple movement each day at age 12 was linked to an average 10 per cent reduction in depression at age 18.

The types of a movement included a running, biking and walking, as well as activities like doing chores, painting or a playing an instrument, CNN reported.