Exercise Might Not Ease Anxiety And Depression

If you think that exercise can help you ease out anxiety and depressiondefine, then ponder over this thought again. A recent study conducted in the Netherlands among twins, one of whom exercised, and the other who didn’t proves that exercise might not really help in relieving stress and depression.

These findings have been published in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

The authors of the study said that the connection observed between exercise, anxiety and depressiondefine can be best explained with the association of genetic factors. They said, “In genetically identical twin pairs, the twin who exercised more did not display fewer anxious and depressive symptoms than the c0-twin who exercised less.”

The study, which was conducted by Marleen HM De Moor of VU University, Amsterdam, took into consideration 5,952 twins from the Netherlands Twin Register, along with 1,357 additional siblings and 1,249 parents. The participants, aged between 18 and 50, were surveyed on their leisure time exercise.

Analysis showed that if one twin exercised more, the other tended to have fewer symptoms. But the same cannot be said about dizygotic twins or other siblings. The authors said, “In genetically identical twin pairs, the twin who exercised more did not display fewer anxious and depressive symptoms than the co-twin who exercised less."

But that does not mean exercise cannot benefit people suffering from anxiety and depression. The authors added that more research is needed in order to reconfirm the findings of this study.