Exercise has long been touted as a way to maintain physical fitness and help prevent high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases. A growing volume of research shows that exercise can also help improve symptoms of certain mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety. Exercise may also help prevent a relapse after treatment for depression or anxiety.

Research suggests that it may take at least 30 minutes of exercise a day for at least three to five days a week to significantly improve depression symptoms. But smaller amounts of activity - as little as 10 to 15 minutes at a time - can improve mood in the short term. "Small bouts of exercise may be a great way to get started if it's initially too hard to do more," Dr. Vickers-Douglas says.

Just how exercise reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety isn't fully understood. Some evidence suggests that exercise raises the levels of certain mood-enhancing neurotransmitters in the brain. Exercise may also boost feel-good endorphins, release muscle tension, help you sleep better, and reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol. It also increases body temperature, which may have calming effects. All of these changes in your mind and body can improve such symptoms as sadness, anxiety, irritability, stress, fatigue, anger, self-doubt and hopelessness.

It's obvious that poor physical fitness can lead to ill health, and ill health to depression and anxiety. If physical condition and depressive symptoms are mutually reinforcing, treating one can improve the other. But that is apparently not how exercise works in most cases. In a review of 30 trials, it made little difference how much a person exercised, how intensely, or how long. What mattered was only how long the program lasted - at least two months. Besides, in most studies, improvement in depression and anxiety is not correlated with increased strength or cardiovascular health. And aerobic exercise and strength training are usually found to be equally effective.

Other possible explanations for the mood enhancing effect of exercise include enhanced body image, social support from exercise groups, and distraction from everyday worries. Meeting the challenge of continuing exercise may heighten self-confidence. Physical activity may affect mood by altering the circulation of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and the endorphins.

Impotence, obesity, hair loss & quit smoking treatment & health news at HealthExpress a MHRA reviewed online UK clinic. HealthExpress provide free consultation with qualified UK doctors.