A new study at the University of Vermont Medical Center published in the journal Global Advances in Health and Medicine urges exercise to be prescribed to patients with mental health issues BEFORE psychiatric drugs.
The study’s researchers built a gym at the UVMC for the approximately 100 members of the inpatient psychiatry unit. The patients were led in structured 60-minute exercise sessions that included a combination of strength training, flexibility training, and cardio.
The results were stunning: 95 percent of patients reported feeling better, and 63 percent reported feeling happy or very happy instead of sad, very sad, or neutral. As for the physical results, almost 92 percent said they were pleased with their bodies during the sessions.
This study affirms what we tend to ignore: the association between physical movement and psychology. We cannot treat the brain separately from the body, but rather we should view the mind and body as a single system whose optimal function depends on the health of all of its components: a deficiency in one leads to degradation in all others.
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