Lift your legs – lift your mood!

It’s spring in South Africa. Is your mood in tune with the season – or are you feeling blue?

Many of us have the ‘winter blues’ as the season draws to a close, but if it continues into spring, it may be real depression. The signs are
being sad, fatigued, low in energy, irritable, needing more sleep than usual and the like, for an extended period.

Here’s the good news: you can do something to help your depression immediately – without pills, without therapy. “Exercise has a positive
effect on depression,” says Dr Ina Diener, president of the South African Society of Physiotherapy (SASP), which this week celebrates
National Physiotherapy BackWeek (7-13 September). “Just going for a brisk walk can materially help to lift your mood, and recent Swedish
research shows that exercising with a physiotherapist could be a very effective treatment.”

In a study at the Sahlgrenska Academy, the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 62 people with clinical depression were divided up into three
groups (all were being treated with antidepressants). Two groups exercised twice a week with a physiotherapist for ten weeks, while the third
group did not. The results showed a real therapeutic impact for the groups doing the exercise: “In our follow-up interviews for the study,
participants spoke about how they felt alive again and became more active. One woman expressed this to mean that the workout ‘kick starts
my body and helps me get the strength to crawl out of this cocoon that I am in’,” reports Louise Danielsson, who reviews the studies in her
dissertation.1

“This is just one of many studies showing that exercise can be used as a primary therapy for depression,” says Dr Diener. “Regular aerobic
exercise – three to five times a week – has been shown to be an effective treatment for a major depressive disorder of mild to moderate
severity.2 You can get that all-important lift in your mood from just taking a brisk walk for 30 minutes or so, every second day. Of course some
people will need other forms of treatment as well, but there’s strong evidence that exercise will boost the effectiveness of other therapies.3”

This is just one of many reasons why the SASP’s National Physiotherapy BackWeek has the theme, “Movement for Good Health – Exercise!”
Exercise has a myriad benefits for physical and mental wellbeing.

From 7-13 September, physiotherapists across the country have been visiting public places such as schools and shopping malls to offer free
advice and assessment, but if you’ve missed them, you can find a physiotherapist near you by calling the SASP Head Office on 011 615-3170.

References
"Exercise with a physiotherapist helps people with depression." ScienceDaily, 12 June 2015.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150612091327.htm http://hdl.handle.net/2077/38464
Exercise Treatment for Depression Efficacy and Dose Response Andrea L. Dunn, P et al (Am J Prev Med
2005;28(1):1– 8) © 2005 American Journal of Preventive Medicine
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC474733/

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