How Does Ercise Stave Off Depression?
Photo: (c)Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection
It’s common sense: ercise regularly, and you won’t feel like doo-doo. Especially in the coming months, when seasonal depression beckons you with fetal Netflix-watching and blinds-down soup-slurping, you know it’s extra vital to chase those endorphins. But how exactly does ercise counteract depression? A new study from Sweden pinpoints an enzyme produced by muscles during ercise which breaks down the stress-induced chemical that makes everything seem gloomy.
First the researchers bred mice with extra-high levels of PGC-1alpha1, the chemical byproduct of ercise that they hypothesized was counteracting depression. Then they subjected these mice, and a control group of normal mice, to mild stress, such as intermittent and light electric shocking or periodically restraining them, for five weeks. In order to find out if these mice were depressed, the researchers performed a number of behavioral tests: one particularly bleak test places a mouse in a maze flooded with cold water. If the mouse gives up and just shivers in place, that mouse is considered depressed (brrr!!). Other indicators of rodent depression are weight loss and a lack of interest in the sugar-water dispenser (which, for mice, is basically bottle service).
The mice bred with ercise byproduct showed significantly fewer symptoms of depression than the control group. In other words, these special mice escaped the cold-water maze and celebrated with sugar water. The interesting thing is that PGC-1alpha1 doesn’t directly affect the brain, like endorphins. Rather, it plays defense against kynurenine, the chemical that lingers in your bloodstream after a stressful event and is thought to cause depression.
So, in light of recent research showing that everyday stress can poison your relationships, and considering that we are now in full on cuffing season (when everyone is locking down their winter squeeze): you really should stick to your ercise regime. Otherwise you’ll be suffering the Sunday Scaries on your own.
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