Walking for 20 minutes a day is enough to reduce your chances of depression.
People who go for a short walk five days a week reduce their risk of depression by 16 percent, and they are 43 percent less likely to suffer major depression.
Walk more and the risk drops further, say researchers from the University of Limerick.
They looked at 10 years of data from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing to discover the least amount of physical activity that would be needed to ward off depression.
Interestingly, the positive effects of mild exercise were the same for everyone, irrespective of age, education, obesity, smoking, and alcohol use.
Walking for 20 minutes isn’t too difficult to build into daily activity, such as a hobby or social interactions, said researcher Eamon Laird.
But it’s not enough on its own. Moderate exercise is just one component of a healthy lifestyle that also includes a good diet.
What do you think? Start a conversation over on the... WDDTY Community
