Monday, May 5, 2014

Just Life| Beating the Blues

We have this wonderful newsletter at Chavez reference called the " Harvard Health letters". In their April 2014 issue, I came across this article called " Drug free options to fight depression."

According to this article, one of the ways to fight depression is by exercising.

Both high intensity exercises and low intensity exercises can help alleviate depression.

High intensity exercises increase the releasing of feel good hormones called endorphins.

Low intensity exercises cause the growth of new nerve cells and nerve connections in the hippocampus; which is the mood regulating area of the brain.  

The benefits of low intensity exercises start appearing after a few weeks of low intensity exercising.

Since one of the side effects of depression is a lack of motivation, the article suggests forcing yourself to walk for only 5 minutes/day for a week. Then try to add another 5 minutes the next week and so on, until you reach the goal of walking 20-30 minutes a day. 

If you are not the exercising type, eating dark chocolate can help fight the blues as well.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha





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