Judy Mulloy’s voice cracks and her eyes fill with tears as she describes how a simple walk in the park and chair yoga have helped her get through the pandemic.
“Oh, it’s a happy cry, I assure you,” he said. “My life has changed. It is no longer a sad thing.”
Mulloy, 56, first turned to physical activity years ago to manage his depression. She says staying active in her hometown of Nelson, BC, hasn’t eliminated her need for a daily antidepressant.
“But what can improve my mood is going for a walk. Going for a swim. Getting some exercise,” he said.
That tonic began to wear thin when the first COVID-19 lockdown hit in 2020 and gyms and rec centers were closed. Mulloy responded to a social media post seeking volunteers for a study that replaced facilities and classes with a commercially available app.
“I haven’t looked back. It’s been amazing,” he said.
Anxiety, depression increased in pandemic
The study was conceived by Eli Puterman, assistant professor at the University of British Columbia School of Kinesiology in Vancouver.
Puterman says he was moved by polls like the survey conducted for Mental Health Research Canada in early 2020, which suggested anxiety levels had quadrupled and depression levels doubled during the pandemic.
“People were hurting. So we wanted to see if we could support people,” Puterman said.
His research team recruited more than 300 people, gave them a free subscription to a fitness app, and divided them into four random groups that either did yoga, high-intensity interval training, a combination of the two, or were relegated to one. waiting list.
Each week, the participants completed a standard questionnaire used in the diagnosis and treatment of depression. Using a scale of zero to three, people reported how often they experienced symptoms like insomnia or feeling lonely.
The results they were reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine last fall.
“Everyone lowered their levels of depression,” Puterman said.
Judy Mulloy breaks down as she explains how exercise helped her regain hope and change aspects of her life that were contributing to her depression. 1:40
While none of the participants were tested to determine if they had been diagnosed clinically depressed, of those who actively participated in the study, those who reported the most severe symptoms at the start showed the greatest improvement, Puterman said.
“I’m surprised at how drastic the effect was,” he said.
Previous studies show similar results
Puterman’s results are only the latest to link physical activity and mood. “There have been enough studies,” said Dr. Ron Remick, a Vancouver psychiatrist.
Remick believes that physical activity may be just as effective as some of the more common treatments for depression, such as psychotherapy or antidepressants. But while it is true that research going back decades demonstrates the ability of exercise to significantly reduce symptoms of depression and prevent relapse; on its own, it may not be enough to treat major depression, a complex illness that can have multiple causes.
Remick’s defense of movement as medicine comes from his own experience. Seven years ago, as medical director of the British Columbia Mood Disorders Association, he pioneered a weekly low-impact movement program for his patients called Jump Step.
It involved outdoor walks, floor exercises, and cardio routines combined with a group medical visit.
When the pandemic hit, the show went virtual. The participants received the only equipment they would need: a yoga mat and an exercise band. Jump Step now runs for eight weeks, four times a year. Its results caught the attention of the BC government, which was interested in potentially implementing it throughout the province.
“Similar to our previous research, it has continued to show that a significant number of people who do a program like this have significant improvement in their depressive symptoms,” Remick said.
‘A break from all that talk’
Michael Sarvari leads the weekly classes. Sarvari draws from his own experience as someone who struggled with severe depression for most of his life until one day, he says, he got out of bed and was convinced to do a push-up. The next day he tried two, and so on.
“When you’re depressed, your mind is very busy with negative thoughts and talk,” Sarvari said.
“When you get out of your mind and into your body doing physical things, you get a break from all that talk. It creates that calm within you.”
Sarvari says it’s hard to overstate the benefits of regular, basic physical activity.
“I could be homeless because I couldn’t support myself. I couldn’t work,” he said. “I would be in a very dark place and possibly not alive because I was suicidal for many years.”
Ron Remick, medical director of the British Columbia Mood Disorders Association, explains how a small amount of moderate exercise can help fight depression and reduce the risk of some diseases. 0:50
The researchers hope to alleviate that kind of personal suffering while acknowledging that there is a reward for the general public if they are successful. A decade ago, the World Economic Forum and the Harvard School of Public Health forecast that the global cost of mental health conditions by 2030 would exceed $7 trillion a year.
“Changes happen slowly in medicine, even when the evidence has been around for a long time,” Remick said.
Unlike a pill, the exercise prescription must be tailored to the patient’s abilities by doctors who know how to motivate people.
Puterman says that while there is ample evidence to support his broader findings, some gaps in the research remain. Most of the participants in her study were white and kept their jobs during the pandemic. She plans to focus a future study on more diverse and vulnerable communities.
