[mtalantikite]

I’m not sure it’s just an opinion, there is a plethora of research showing the effects of exercise on depression.

There are certainly people that are clinically depressed that are also physically active (some friends of mine are in that group). OP states as much.

But I agree with OP, if we’re not going to talk about the low hanging fruit of exercise, diet, and sleep, we’re not going to get anywhere with combating depression.

Edit: here’s just one of many studies (there are literally hundreds of them) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC474733/

[DanBC]

> there is a plethora of research showing the effects of exercise on depression.

Yes, there is. It all shows that exercise is moderately better than nothing as a treatment for depression, unless you only include good quality trials in which case the effectiveness drops off.

https://www.cochrane.org/CD004366/DEPRESSN_exercise-for-depr...

> Exercise is moderately more effective than no therapy for reducing symptoms of depression.

[...]

> The reviewers also note that when only high-quality studies were included, the difference between exercise and no therapy is less conclusive.

[mtalantikite]

Totally, it seems to be somewhere around about as effective as other treatments for depression.

Personally I choose exercise over medication, and haven’t had any significant depressive episodes since I started swimming, running, and practicing yoga four or five times per week. As a bonus my body feels great and my mind is more clear now too. I just wish I could have made younger me wake up to it (even though I knew what the answer was).

There are certainly people that aren’t able bodied and can’t choose exercise, or are clinically depressed beyond what exercise would be effective for, but for many people a solution seems to be exercise.

[mercer]

I completely agree that these are important things to discuss. I just wish OP had left out the 'majority of cases' statement, because it doesn't really add much to his (valuable) point and hits a nerve with many people.