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Exercise for the Treatment of Depression
Depression
is a complex mental-health disorder. The causes that contribute to
depression are vast and some causes emerge unexplainably on a regular
basis, as scientists, the psychological community continue to seek
and discover the causes of depression.
Experts
have identified that most depressive disorders begin as a result of some
synapses in the brain not making needed connections with other parts of
the brain and the central nervous system. Synapses are like the
"pony-express" of olden days. They carry messages between the central
nervous system and the brain.
These
messages result in a reactive-response in the body. If we touch a hot
stove, we receive a burn and a message of pain is sent first to the
brain and then to the central nervous system. The central nervous system
then relays messages through these synapses to tell the cells in the
body to begin making repairs to the damage caused to the skin’s surface
by the burn. A message will also be sent to the immune system to kick
into high- gear in expectation of having to battle incoming infectious
germs from the burn site. What a marvelous mechanism that the healthy
human body is. No computer will ever match the natural powers of the
amazing human body.
Experts
have identified as well that these synapses need to be "lubricated" in
order to move quickly from one place in the body to another. If you're
in danger, you need your brain to know it and send out the call to the
central nervous system to get your feet moving. This happens almost
instantly in healthy people. The lubricant needed by these synapses is
provided by the body in the form of hormones. Serotonin and endorphins
have been determined to be the hormone lubricants responsible for
connections in the brain that produce our emotions.
When your
body, for a variety of reasons does not produce enough of these
hormones, it throws off the body's balance of these hormones and
depression results. Unbalanced hormones can also cause an inability to
control the emotions we are feeling, and can also lead to physical
ailments because this imbalance in hormones puts stress on the immune
system and a stressed immune system is a sitting-duck for illness.
Exercise
has been found to raise these very important hormones to a balanced
level that keeps our emotions on an even keel, and helps keep our immune
systems strong ad healthy enough to fight off the germs that try to make
us sick.
Any
treatment for depression should include exercise as one of the
front-runners for treating depression. Humans are comprised of minds,
bodies and spirits. We need each to be healthy in order to be entirely
healthy. Exercise is good for all of the wondrous parts inside each and
every human being.
Exercise
has been shown to change the physiological make-up of our brains which
in many cases will relieve a person entirely from depression, and may
prevent recurrences.
Exercise is
good when used to treat depression because it gets you to focus on
something else (crucial to overcoming depression) because many of the
people who are suffering from depression isolate, and turn-inwards,
where they cannot see past the depressive "forest of dark trees"
within.. Exercise gives them not only another focus, but a positive
focus. They are after all improving their health even as they strive to
overcome depression.
If you or
someone you know has been battling depression and medications and
therapy sessions haven't seemed to make a dent in the depth of
depression, add exercise to the equation and you or someone you care
about will be helped tremendously in their effort to overcome
depression.
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