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Bloomberg — Walking and jogging, yoga and strength training are effective treatments for depression, according to a study published by the British Medical Journal.

While low-intensity exercise is beneficial, more vigorous activity tends to provide even greater benefits.s, according to the study.

The World Health Organization states that around 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression. According to the report, major depressive disorder is the leading cause of disability worldwide and has been found to reduce life satisfaction more than debt, divorce and diabetes.

Exercise, along with psychotherapy and medication, is recommended as the “primary treatment” for depression. But the guidelines remain unclear on how best to prescribe exercise to treat the condition.

Yoga is more effective in men

The researchers analyzed 218 relevant studies involving 14,170 participants with depression. Each trial was assessed for bias, and exercise type, intensity, and frequency were recorded.

Walking or jogging has been found to be effective for both men and women. While young people and women saw the most benefit from strength training, yoga was most effective for men, as well as older adults.

In a related editorial, Juan Angel Bellon from the University of Malaga noted that regular exercise can be difficult for people with depression, as they often experience symptoms of fatigue and low energy. Health services “must provide sufficient resources to make individualized and supervised exercise programs accessible to the entire population,” he wrote.

The authors of the BMJ study acknowledge that the quality of the evidence is low and that studies that followed participants for a year or more were limited. They also noted that many patients may have physical, psychological, or social barriers to participation.

Read more at Bloomberg.com.