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.
