A small amount of exercise — as little as half an hour of moderate physical activity, 5,000 steps or one gym visit a week — reduces the risk of women developing depression, a new study has found.
“The findings [show] one in five cases of depression in women could be prevented if physical activity increases by low to moderate levels,” said study co-author Dr Mosima Mabunda, GM and head of wellness at Vitality South Africa.
The health and physical activity records of nearly 50,000 Discovery Health and Vitality members in South Africa provided the data for the research, making it one of the first such studies from a middle to low-income country. Roughly one in 10 South Africans suffer from depression, which increased during the Covid-19 pandemic.UCT professor Dan Stein, director of the MRC unit and the UCT Neuroscience Institute, said depression is not like coronavirus, where a vaccine can prevent it.
The findings support existing evidence, mostly from Western and high-income countries, that exercise can help protect against depression.
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