Health: Exercise May Boost Brain's Natural Antidepressant

[Guest guest]

Exercise May Boost Brain's Natural Antidepressant

 

Mon Dec 3, 2007 10:41am EST

 

By Amy Norton

 

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USCOL35642320071203

 

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Exercise seems to increase the production of

naturally occurring brain chemical with antidepressant effects in mice,

researchers reported Sunday.

 

The findings, published in the journal Nature Medicine, point to potential

new ways to treat depression in people.

 

Studies have found that exercise can help ease depression symptoms, but the

reasons for the benefit have not been clear. For the new study, scientists

used a tool called a microarray to examine how exercise changed gene

activity in the brains of mice.

 

They focused on a brain region known as the hippocampus, which has been

implicated in mood regulation and in the brain's response to antidepressant

medication.

 

The researchers found that mice that had a week's worth of workouts on a

running wheel showed altered activity in a total of 33 genes, the majority

of which had never been identified before.

 

In particular, exercise enhanced activity in the gene for a nerve growth

factor known as VGF. Nerve growth factors are small proteins important in

the development and maintenance of nerve cells.

 

Moreover, when the researchers infused a synthetic version of VGF into the

brains of the mice, it produced a " robust antidepressant effect " in

standardized tests of animals placed in stressful situations.

 

" The major finding is that we have identified a key factor that underlies

the antidepressant effects of exercise -- information that could be used for

the development of novel therapeutic agents, " said senior researcher Dr.

Ronald S. Duman of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

 

Exercise " clearly has effects on the brain, " he told Reuters Health, and

they are both direct and indirect. It's possible, he explained, that the

current findings reflect a direct effect of exercise on nerve cells in the

hippocampus, or more general changes in the brain, like better blood flow or

increased hormonal activity.

 

Besides offering more support for the benefits of exercise, the findings

also point to VGF as a target for new antidepressants, according to Duman

and his colleagues. Such medications, they point out, would work by an

entirely different mechanism than existing antidepressants, which are

effective for about 65 percent of patients.

 

SOURCE: Nature Medicine, online December 2, 2007.

 

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

something my dad has said for years and my doctor actually tells me to

do when I get down in the mouth...

 

GET OUT of the HOUSE and In to NATURE...

 

Unfortunately if your thyroid isn't working correctly that doesn't do

much for you...

 

Jennifer

 

Butch Owen wrote:

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12:20 PM

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[Guest guest]

Once again, Scientific confirmation of what most

people know. Exercise makes you feel good.

 

Author Kathleen Norris mentions her ongoing

battle with depression in " The Cloister Walk " ,

a lovely contemplative book that can be enjoyed

by a non-christian.

 

The wise monks in the cloister have their own

prescription for depression:

Exercise and spiritual guidance. It works.

 

Ien in the Kootenays

http://freegreenliving.blogspot.com