Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Which is good news for some of us. From The Telegraph:
Research published in the British Medical Journal suggests that adding a physical activity intervention to usual care did not reduce symptoms of depression more than usual care alone.
This contrasts with current clinical guidance which recommends exercise to help those suffering from the mental illness, which affects one in six adults in Britain at any one time.
I'm not sure I buy this. A certain amount of exercise almost always lifts my mood. Either that or it exhausts me, and I fall asleep faster (which also lifts my mood).
What it suggests, though, is that things like "clinical guidance" -- whatever that means -- are often wrongheaded, or based on non-existent data. And for some reason, studies like this always cheer me up precisely because they call into question received wisdom.
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Jun '10
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
I do physical exercise for my body, not my brain. I do my brain exercise at Ricochet.
Edited on June 13, 2012 at 9:56pmDec '10
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Perhaps it's the lessening of guilt we achieve by exercising that really makes the difference.
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Rob Long:
What it suggests, though, is that things like "clinical guidance" -- whatever that means -- are often wrongheaded, or based on non-existent data. And for some reason, studies like this always cheer me up precisely because they call into question received wisdom. · · 6 minutes ago
No, I think what it suggests is that these pop-science "studies" and "research projects" often come to impossibly stupid conclusions.
This particular study approaches the level of idiocy that the European study which supposedly discovered that water —water!— does not prevent dehydration did.
Jun '11
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Rob Long:
What it suggests, though, is that things like "clinical guidance" -- whatever that means -- are often wrongheaded, or based on non-existent data. And for some reason, studies like this always cheer me up precisely because they call into question received wisdom. · · 6 minutes ago
No, I think what it suggests is that these pop-science "studies" and "research projects" often come to impossibly stupid conclusions.
This particular study approaches the level of idiocy that the European study which supposedly discovered that water —water!— does not prevent dehydration did. · 2 minutes ago
I'm with Diane. And to quote Dennis Prager, a "scientific study" either confirms what common sense tells us, or it's wrong.
May '12
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Guess it depends on what you mean by "happy." Certainly not in the Dennis Prager sense - at peace with the world, virtuous, etc. But there's no doubt that it makes you feel better and more adjusted.
Nov '10
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
May '10
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Once that youthful pup R Long gets to be my advanced age, he will know that exercise is essential to being able to move at all. Joints rust very fast if they are not flexed.
Apr '12
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
My time on the treadmill this morning did not make me happy...but it will allow me to a enjoy a hot fudge sunday this evening...now that will make me happy
Edited on June 13, 2012 at 10:59pmMar '11
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Nearly every commercial I've ever seen for fitness equipment promotes the item's unique ability to fold tightly and fit under your bed... illustrating an important truism - buying fitness equipment makes one happy but using it does not.
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Further evidence of a medical establishment genuflecting at the altar of the randomized control trial. RCTs are wonderful tools; likewise population-based studies more generally. However, it is critically important to match the tool to the job at hand.
Biology is universal. Therefore, in order to prove the effect of a new drug, I must first remove all traces of bias and otherwise control for idiosyncratic results. Enter the RCT.
However, many clinical researchers act the proverbial carpenter: all they have is a hammer, so everything around them must be a nail.
Is it really surprising that non-pharmacologic interventions for depression might need individual adjustment? What motivates me is different from what interests you. Tastes differ with culture, age, and a host of other factors. And motivation is dynamic: "what works" in an individual is likely to change over time.
Behavior is individual, not universal. And bias, particularly for a subjectively defined illness like depression, is pretty much the point--if I "like" an intervention and it makes me "happy," then it is successful.
So it proves absolutely nothing to demonstrate that a population-based behavioral intervention targeted to depressed individuals does no good on average.
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
And if the idea is to isolate the physiologic effect of vigorous exercise from all other variables, Redneck Desi's hot fudge sundae reference (comment #8 above) illustrates the futility of the "exercise."
Incidentally, many college psychology experiments suffer related issues, but nevertheless generate boffo headlines, which is really the point.
Mar '11
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
But with just one more big fat check from the government we might get that proof! Whaddya say?
Aug '10
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Perhaps if I ran to the corner paraphernelia store to get my bath salts, it would make me happier, but just biting the heads of lab rats gives me joy enough.
Last time I tried running in the neighborhood, I was arrested . Evidently, you're not supposed to run from a burglary ! What are ya gonna do ? Walk ?
Mar '11
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Either way, wear your pedometer.
Nov '10
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Well, you'd have to look at the study itself, rather than a news report, to get a better idea of what they actually did, but there are a couple of obvious issues. First, did they just tell the people to exercise, or did they actually help them to get the exercise? Because if you just tell depressed people to exercise, it may be actually very hard for them to do it--and it might just increase guilt and feelings of worthlessness if they fail. Second, of course, it isn't clear that the prescription for exercise would have the same effects on depressed people as on others--so it may be that exercise in fact doesn't alleviate depression but does improve the mood of people who aren't depressed. Or, perhaps, exercise helps prevent depression but doesn't help improve it better than usual care. And, of course, the changes in mood may depend on the kind of exercise, and we don't know what kind it is.
Mar '12
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
Settle for your thyroid condition, eat well, sleep well, and move along.
If you are intensely maladjusted, see your doctor and get some day glows. Then go for a walk and smile at people before your thyroid condition flares up. Then eat well, sleep well and when you get up, take that day glow and begin your day with a smile.
Nov '10
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
The conclusion to draw may depend on the specifics of the experiment -- what did they control for? Were the treatment groups selected randomly? Was it blinded? (Double-blinding would have been an issue with this.) Before looking at the experiment I'd first look at the ideology of the experimenters. Unfortunately we're not in a perfect world, and in social science it's common for people to hold dogmatically to some uncommon theory in the absence of scientific support and then -- shockingly -- they just happen to produce the first "scientific" study that provides exactly that support. This is a big red flag. Knowing prior idiological bias can guide one's analysis of how a research project was done. Some claim that one can even determine a social scientist's own pet theories by examining only a description of the experiments they design. Probably not true for all, but it rings true in a number of cases I've examined.
Aug '10
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
5 miles on a cliff-top run in the West of Ireland, followed by the sort sharp shock of a dip in the Atlantic ( low 50s around now) doesn't just make me feel happy! Ecstatic would be more like it.And healthy. I'd say "King of the World" if I was a monarchist. Of course it could well be that the Ricochet podcasts I listen to while running-not swimming-contribute somewhat to the euphoria, but I'm guessing it's more about the active than the passive elements.
Nov '10
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
It might be interesting to know what these folks mean by exercise. For example, I could see being contractually trapped on a treadmill in an unpleasant clinic for 45 minutes every day, having to get time off work for it or babysitters, etc. could exacerbate depression. Whereas working a walk or bike ride into one's schedule, or swimming with a friend, may do the opposite. There is not some simple, generic formula for "exercise" that is going to easily capture what this (as if!) single variable does to some purported generic variable called "depression". There's a huge amount of room for fiddling simply by playing with such things.
May '10
Re: Exercise Doesn't Make You Happy
I, for one, am an avid runner - when someone is chasing me.