A Walk In The Country May Beat Depression

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 5-14-2007 | Amy Iggulden

[blam]

A walk in the country may beat depression

By Amy Iggulden
Last Updated: 1:27am BST 14/05/2007

Country walks can significantly reduce depression and raise sufferers' self-esteem, according to research published today.

The first study into "ecotherapy" found that fresh air and exercise cut depression in more than 70 per cent of people.

A 30-minute walk in a country park also boosted self-esteem in nine out of 10 sufferers.

The dramatic findings raise questions about the wide use of anti-depressants, and have led to calls for "green therapy" to become mainstream practice.

Prescriptions for anti-depressants reached record levels last year. More than 31 million were written, an increase of six per cent on the year before, according to mental health charity Mind.

Demand for the group of anti-depressant drugs associated with an increased risk of suicide - called serotonin specific reuptake inhibitors - also rose by 10 per cent.

Ecotherapy is the use of conservation projects or a natural environment to help recovery from illness, particularly for those with mental health problems.

Mind has called for doctors to consider using conservation projects or country walks as part of mainstream treatment.

Paul Farmer, Mind's chief executive, said: "It is a credible, clinically valid treatment option and needs to be prescribed by GPs, especially when for many people access to treatments other than anti-depressants is extremely limited.

"We're not saying that ecotherapy can replace drugs but that the debate needs to be broadened."

Researchers at the University of Essex compared the benefits of a 30-minute country walk with a trip to an indoor shopping centre.

Using the experience of 20 members of Mind associations, they found that 71 per cent of the country walkers reported decreased levels of depression. Only 45 per cent of those visiting a shopping centre said their depression had lifted, while 22 per cent said it had got worse. Half said they felt more tense afterwards.

In a second study involving 108 people with various mental health problems who had tried ecotherapy, nine out of 10 said that they had benefited.

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[GOP Poet]

Does this mean city walks on LA golf courses are out? I would like to see those study results side by side to see if there is a similar effect. I love a good country walk though and I would posit that they do not have the same exact percentage of alleviation of depression (because of noise and environmental pollution). But hey a new study could tell all :-).

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Wow! Who ever know avoiding stress would be good for you? Did they spend millions on the study to come up with this shocking conclusion that relaxing in a low-stress environment away from the rat race actually makes you feel better? Wow? Whodathunkit??????????????????????????????????

Geniuses, I tell ya! Geniuses.

[Cacique]

btt

[yankeedame]

The dramatic findings raise questions about the wide use of anti-depressants, and have led to calls for "green therapy" to become mainstream practice.

While reading this bare in mind that the NHS has reached the point where

• it removes "unnecessary" light bulbs from hospital;
• it praises the use of leeches and maggots in medical treatment;
• it will not give kidney dialysis to those over 55;
• that in affliction that strike the eye the sufferer must go blind in one eye before serious treatment is initiated;
• and now this: You suffer from a chemical imbalance which effects neurotransmitters in your brain resulting in clinical depression. To "beat" this involuntary chemical imbalance it is now pleasantly suggested you take a 30 minute walk in the country. Drugs, after all, cost money -- like light bulbs.

[CrappieLuck]

By comparison,

Depressed country folks take 30 minutes walk in the city to remind ourselves how good we have. Once a year is enough for me.

[sergeantdave]

We don’t need more insane, depressed hippies fouling our pristine environment in rural America.

Eek! Eek! sergeantdave is carrying a shotgun and he’s got a sidearm strapped on his waist.

[syriacus]

Folks in the inner city could also benefit from access to country-like settings.

[Moonman62]

Mark Twain said golf is a good walk spoiled.

[Moonman62]

A Walk In The Country May Beat Depression

Unless you're mugged or attacked by a wild animal.

[Moonman62]

How long before they skip the leeches and go back to blood letting?

[Tokra]

it praises the use of leeches and maggots in medical treatment

It may sound gross - but maggots really do have a medical use.

Don't read this if you are eating!

A few years ago I was working with elderly patients in OKC. I had to deal with a woman who had been laying on a couch for 7 years. She had a coffee can she used for a toilet and paid neighbor kids to empty it and bring her fast food every day.

Her family called us in (the woman lived alone) because they couldn't get her to go to a doctor. I met a nurse at her home and we went in and started to lift her up off the couch.

She had a huge open bedsore in the middle of her back - the smell was ghastly. When we got her part way up maggots started dropping out of the sore.

I dropped her and ran outside to throw up in the yard. It was all I could do to go back in that room to help the nurse get her into a wheelchair.

The nurse later told me that the maggots are what kept the woman alive. The maggots ate the infection in the sore. If it hadn't been for them the infection would have spread and the woman would likely have died.

The nurse told me that primitive societies still use maggots to keep wounds clean.

It wounds like something out of a voodoo witch doctor story - but apparently maggots really do keep wounds clean by eating up the infection.

Now go have some chips and dip for lunch.

[blam]

Maggots Rid Patients Of Antibiotic-resistant Infection, MRSA