Physical activity was recently found to be 1.5 times more effective at helping manage depression than medications or counseling, according to a review involving 128,119 participants from 1039 trials and 97 reviews. Physical activity can provide great benefit in alleviating symptoms associated with distress, anxiety, and depression.

This review found that exercise treatments of 12 weeks or less were most successful at alleviating symptoms associated with mental health conditions, illustrating the speed with which physical activity can produce changes.

Individuals experiencing depression, postpartum and pregnant women, healthy people and those living with kidney disease or HIV showed the greatest gains.

According to WHO research, one out of every eight individuals worldwide live with mental health disorders. Mental illness costs the global economy about $2.5 trillion every year and this amount could grow as soon as another five years pass.

Physical activity should be prioritized to combat the rising prevalence of mental health disorders.

Physical activity has long been recognized for helping to enhance mental wellbeing, yet despite this evidence it has not become widely implemented as a first-choice treatment strategy.

This review finds that physical activity treatments are capable of producing significant reductions in anxiety and depression symptoms across all population groups; some subpopulations even showed even stronger signs of improvement.

Exercise of higher intensity resulted in greater improvements for anxiety and depression, while longer duration exercise had smaller effects compared to short and mid-duration forms of activity.

Studies found that all forms of exercise and physical activity, from aerobic exercises such as yoga and Pilates to resistance training and walking, could provide health benefits.

More importantly, research shows that it does not take much physical exercise to have an effectful positive influence on mental health.