With Mayo Clinic psychiatrist Gabrielle J. Melin, M.D.

We all know that exercising is important for cardiovascular health, brain health and overall body health. Can we look at exercise and depression the same way?

Yes, exercise definitely can improve your depression and this has been proven in many scientific studies. Exercise leads to the production of endorphins. Endorphins are the feel-good chemical that all human bodies make. Does exercising mean 60 minutes of power aerobics? No.

Exercise can mean moving more, like parking the car farther away or taking the stairs. Exercise can mean stretching, yoga, jump roping. You get the idea, just move! Make sure to do something that you like and change it up every once in a while. You don't want to get bored. Get a partner to move with.

Tell other people about your goals. Sharing your goals has been shown to make you much more likely to succeed. Does everyone love exercise? No, of course not, but there are many things in life we don't like and do anyway.

As we discussed recently, set yourself up for success by setting small, reasonable goals that you are sure to achieve. This will boost your mood, self-esteem and confidence, which are all areas that depression can affect. Exercise is one way to self-manage your depression.

Self-management is a generic term that means self-directed activity such as thinking, taking medications as prescribed, exercising, etc. that helps treat disease. This concept can be applied to depression, diabetes, heart failure, etc. Make sure to discuss with your physician before beginning any exercise program.

In upcoming blogs, we'll address medications and information on research treatment trials for depression, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), deep brain stimulation (DBS) and vagal nerve stimulation.

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