Work it Out

Feeling down? Try exercising—it might chase away those blues. Steven Herman, Ph.D., a Duke University psychology professor, studied three forms of depression treatment: the antidepressant Zoloft, a group exercise program and a combination of the two. Of the study's 156 participants, between 60% and 70% of those in all three groups recovered after four months of treatment.

But what's most impressive, reports Herman in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, is that in a follow-up study six months later, members of the exercise-only group were significantly less likely to have relapsed into depression. "When we accomplish things on our own we tend to feel better about ourselves," Herman explains.

The findings are particularly uplifting for people who take medications that can't be mixed with antidepressants or those who simply don't respond to them. In the end, Herman doesn't suggest that exercise replace drugs altogether in treating depression. "But studies increasingly demonstrate that exercise deserves respect as a legitimate treatment alternative," he says.