Can you believe it’s already December?
We’re smack in the middle of the holidays! The last month of 2019 has begun. If this December is anything like the past, it will zoom by like a rocket. I hope your Thanksgiving was a joyful time for you. Going forward, it’s part of the tradition at this time of year to overindulge …then let diet and exercise obligations pelt us like hail at the start of the New Year. But I have another suggestion, and it’s related to exercise now. Beginning today, increasing your exercise can reduce your risk of depression going forward. In fact, exercise reduces future depression even in the holidays ahead. Wouldn’t that be nice?
As you know, depression can run in families, and when you’ve experienced recurring bouts of depression all your life, it can seem like an albatross. Something that’s part of your life that robs you of resilience and the energy to face the demands of a busy time of year like this.
If you have other family members who also struggle, you can start to think this is just how life is. And that there is just nothing you can do about it.
Trudging as if in mud, a dark cloud hanging over you…feeling listless and overwhelmed, and just wanting to go to bed.
But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.
Inherited Depression Isn’t a Life Sentence
There really are things you can do. Things like eating foods that support a brighter outlook by strengthening the microbiome, and by strengthening circuitry through omega-3 fatty acids.
Another way is to spend at least 30 minutes a day in the sunshine, and in good weather, more than that. Good for your spirit, good for your body as it makes Vitamin D. It’s essential for nearly every chemical reaction that occurs in your body, and especially those that impact your emotions and frame of mind.
And here’s another big one: the E word.
The E word?
That word we dread hearing from our doctorS, and when they ask about it, we look at the floor and mumble.
EXERCISE!!
Now don’t tune me out. Stay with me…
Many of us are on a guilt trip about working out, about not exercising enough on a regular basis. There are those inspiring icons who are at the gym every day, running, lifting weights, building muscle, stretching… the SLEEK ones. You can pick them out anywhere. The mall, the grocery store, your favorite restaurant.
But, my friend, believe it or not, those people are not the mainstream. And you are NOT shameful that your exercise schedule doesn’t match theirs.
The truth is, exercise is for YOU. It’s for your enjoyment (no I’m not kidding), for your own release of tension, it’s for your health to keep your arteries clean and clear and your heart strong…and to ward off diabetes and other diseases.
But that’s not all.
Exercise Reduces Future Depression
Did you know that?
You’ve probably heard it will help you combat depression now…but who feels like getting out and moving anyway? When you feel crummy, exercising is the last thing you feel like doing.
Except that getting outside, breathing in fresh air, and moving your body, your joints, your muscles… can be a lifeline of hope if you let it.
In fact, a biobank cohort study published in Depression & Anxiety, showed that when you’re active it can help prevent depression in the future regardless of your genetic predisposition.
Using a data base of 8000 people of European ancestry, Karmel Choi, Ph.D. and her colleagues determined that an increase in physical activity was associated with decreased likelihood of depression episodes in the future. And this wasn’t just in cases of people with a background of heavy daily workouts or participations in sports.
Whether the activity was intense, like aerobic exercise or the use of exercise machines, or lower-intensity movement like yoga and stretching, each time they added a 4-hour block of activity in per week it was linked to a 17% reduction in the likelihood of a new episode of depression going forward. According to these findings, exercise reduces future depression. It’s worth pushing through.
Exercise – At Least As Important in Fighting Depression As What You Eat
Recognizing this can help your psychiatrist prescribe more movement and activity to reduce depression for you going forward.
When you’re depressed, it goes without saying that you just don’t feel like getting out, being active, pushing through the fog and inertia to initiate exercise, but doing so anyway can open the door to better days ahead.
And even if your doctor tells you to be active 4 hours each week, it doesn’t mean that you will. It can really seem futile, when your outlook is dark. But it’s worth the commitment and the effort.
And if you find you can hardly get out of bed…if at all… and you really do need some sort of a leg up just to start the exercise, you may be a candidate for IV ketamine treatment.
IV Ketamine Treatment Gives You a Head Start
At Innovative Psychiatry, our patients often find they’re so much more able to participate in their own recovery after IV ketamine treatment. By restoring synaptic connections and signaling pathways in key brain regions, returning the lateral habenula to optimal function, your energy can improve dramatically — for getting exercise, building relationships, enjoying your family, doing things with friends, pursuing hobbies, and performing at work.
The G proteins can slide off their lipid rafts to enhance neurotransmitters to do their jobs, and you can enjoy motivation and initiative you’ve lacked for so long…to do things like exercise for the sake of your future health.
It’s true that IV ketamine treatment isn’t for everyone… Some people just don’t benefit like we want them to. But those are the exception rather than the rule. Sometimes when a patient doesn’t respond at first, several weeks later they’ll experience restoration as a sort of delayed response. It can seem to bubble up on its own.
In fact, there has never before been a medicine for depression that has been so quickly and so widely effective. Never.
You Can Enjoy Energy, Initiative, and Hope
If you’ve tried antidepressants without improvement, you owe it to yourself to let IV ketamine treatment show you what it can do. We have financing options to help you access this extraordinary treatment, and we can schedule you within a few days in most cases.
Whether you suffer from depression, bipolar depression, PTSD, opioid use disorder, alcohol use disorder, and/or suicidal thinking, IV ketamine treatment can transform your life. You really don’t have to just endure. You really can have the life you’ve wished for as long as you can remember.
If you want to be proactive toward your recovery with better diet and more exercise… and to invest yourself in the lives of people you love… but you just can’t find the initiative or energy to do it, call us.
IV ketamine treatment offers the most robust, remarkable antidepressant benefits to more people with treatment resistant mood disorders than any treatment we’ve seen in psychiatry to date.
This is YOUR time. 2020 can be your best year yet.
To the restoration of your best self,
