Day 235- Exercise is the Best Medicine When it Comes to Depression

Anti-depressant drugs cost Americas $10 billion a year, and have many undesirable side-effects. I googled the anti-depressant Zoloft to see what the side effects may be; first of all it had important safety information:

Antidepressant medicines may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some children, teenagers, and young adults especially within the first few months of treatment. Depression and certain other serious mental illnesses are important causes of suicidal thoughts and actions. Patients of all ages who are started on antidepressant therapy should be monitored appropriately and observed closely for clinical worsening, suicidality, or unusual changes in behavior

Sold already? Wait there is a whole list of possible side-effects:

Anxiety, constipation, decreased sexual desire or ability, diarrhea, dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth, increased sweating, loss of appetite, nausea, nervousness, stomach upset, tiredness, trouble sleeping, vomiting, severe allergic reactions, bizarre behavior, black or bloody stools, chest pain, confusion, decreased bladder control, decreased concentration, decreased coordination, exaggerated reflexes, fainting, fast or irregular heartbeat, fever, hallucinations, memory loss, panic attacks, aggressiveness, irritability, ringing in the ears, painful erection, seizures, unusual weakness, worsening of depression, etc.

So basically taking the anti-depressant Zoloft can increase depression symptoms???? Sounds like a winner to me.

What else can be done to address depression issues?

• Addressing blood sugar dysregulation
• Addressing estrogen dominance
• EXERCISE!!!!!

An article in TIME - Health states:

In 1999, Duke University researchers demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial that depressed adults who participated in an aerobic-exercise plan improved as much as those treated with sertraline, the drug that, marketed as Zoloft.

Molecular biologists and neurologists have begun to show that exercise may alter brain chemistry in much the same way that antidepressant drugs do — regulating the key neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine. At the University of Georgia, neuroscience professor Philip Holmes and his colleagues have shown that over the course of several weeks, exercise can switch on certain genes that increase the brain's level of galanin, a peptide neurotransmitter that appears to tone down the body's stress response by regulating another brain chemical, norepinephrine.

The result is that exercise primes the brain to show less stress in response to new stimuli. In the case of lab rats and mice, those stimuli include being plunged into very cold water or being suspended by the tail. And while those are not exactly problems most people face, the thinking is that the human neurochemical response may well react similarly, with exercise leaving our brain less susceptible to stress in the face of harmless but unexpected events, like missing an appointment or getting a parking ticket. A little bit of mental strain and excess stimulation from exercise, in other words, may help us to keep day-to-day problems in perspective.

I'm not claiming that anyone should get off their anti-depressants if they already are on them, nor am I saying that exercise will cure depression. But studies have been showing the amazing affects that exercise has on the brain since the 70's so I definitely think that it is an option that doctors should be discussing with their patients, and if nothing else this article is just another kudos on the benefits of exercise.

Pura Vida!

Alica Ryan, NTP

Day 90- Costa Rican Warrior Workouts

I'm getting ready for my longly anticipated Costa Rica vacation, but with all vacations it's a struggle to find the balance between having fun and staying in shape. So why not spend your vacation doing both?

Here are some ideas of activities that you can do to stay in shape while having fun on vacation:

• Surf
• Hike
• Kayak
• Swim
• Play volleyball (or some other type of similar sport)
• Golf (don't rent a cart)
• Shop (my personal favorite cardio)

If that isn't enough try this weeks workout:

• Box jumps- 20x
• Lateral skaters- 25 each side
• Plank hold with alternating knee to chest- hold for 1 minute
• Push-ups- 20x
• Side plank- hold each side for 20 sec

Go through entire workout 3 times

Pura Vida!

Alica Ryan, NTP

Day 25- What makes a workout good?

What makes a workout a good workout? Most people might gauge a workout by how sore their muscles are the next day; concluding that if they aren't sore they didn't work out hard enough. This is not the case; no soreness does not equate to a poor workout.

So why then do we get sore sometimes after a workout?
Soreness (sometimes called delayed onset muscles soreness or DOMS) is normal, especially when you are first starting to work out, if you have changed around your exercise routine, tried new activities, or increased your weights during your workout.

Soreness was originally believed to be caused by a build up of lactic acid in the muscles, but it is now know that lactic acid is removed from the muscles 30-60 minutes after a workout, which wouldn't explain why we feel sore 1-3 days after. Lactic acid is produced by the body due to the high demand from the muscles for oxygen, lactic acid is the reason we feel a "burn" during a workout. The understanding now is that muscle cells convert glucose or glycogen to lactic acid. The lactic acid is taken up and used as a fuel by mitochondria, the energy factories in muscle cells.

If it isn't lactic acid that makes us feel sore, what is it?
Although research is still being done to find out more, most now show that the cause of muscle soreness is due to micro-tears in your muscle fibers. As mentioned above, new exercises, heavier weights, or any activity that your body is not accustomed to can cause damage to the muscle fiber; causing them to become inflamed and you to feel sore.

When you work out hard, but aren't sore afterward are you still getting a good workout?
Yes! Your body has now just adapted to this activity, weight, or routine. Not feeling sore the days after a workout doesn't mean your workout was ineffective or unproductive; as far as effectiveness, muscle soreness doesn't always mean much.

If soreness isn't always the way to measure effectiveness, how can you know if your workout was productive?

• Weight- make sure that when weightlifting you are using a weight heavy enough that you can only complete the desired amount of reps. Using weight that is too light and doesn't fatigue your muscle isn't going to give you as good of an outcome.
  
• Mix up your routine- Don't bore your muscles and your mind by doing the same routines every week. Mixing up your routine will help to avoid hitting a plateau and will prevent boredom when exercising.
  
• Work all your muscle groups- you don't have to work all your muscle groups in one workout, but during the week mix up the muscles that you target.
  
• Work up a sweat- sweat is a sign that you are revving up your body's metabolism and pushing your body.
• Challenge yourself- Instead of doing the same exercises, challenge yourself and get creative. Doing bicep curls? Stand on one foot to force yourself to balance and use your core.
• Feel good and energized- If after your workout you spirits are lifted, and you feel energized then you had a good workout.

Bottom line muscles get sore; at least at the beginning, but eventually the soreness begins to dissipate. Once you become more accustomed to working out you may rarely feel your muscles getting sore. This isn't a sign that what you are doing is not effective it just means that your body has adjusted and can respond better to the activities that you throw at it. So if you are just starting to get into working out, stay in there! You will soon experience this love, hate relationship that we call DOMS, and eventually one day maybe overcome it (at least to a degree).

Pura Vida!

Alica Ryan, NTP