A study in the Journal of Affective Disorders reveals that moderate and vigorous physical activities reduce certain depressive symptoms, especially anhedonia and fatigue, but not others like suicidal thoughts or sleep issues.
My thinking is that there’s also physical health issues and other issues that make physical activity less viable. Human travel (walking/biking) would be a big help*, or just more time/space/money/comfort/motivation(s)** (alternatively: if healthy options were more of a norm/incentive rather than a lucrative market to chase) which is even less likely than changes to zoning/density and infrastructure.
In any case sure, improving someone’s life in 1 aspect will provide benefits… but is anyone actually going to help with that or is it going to just result in more of the same platitudes that are already heard? I don’t think any study has much chance to create policy in the USA any decade soon.
*=That’s from experience… I’m in a semi-rural area, started biking right before the trail closed for renovation ~6months ago. Still closed, no ETA other than “early 2024”.
**=Aside from health/personal/travel reasons, maybe it’s for a hobby. Getting something out of the activity (money, electric, usable mechanical energy) would be nice if it weren’t a problem of cost/storage/loss/logistics etc.
EDIT: And I should say Bowling Alone is in force here too, but again money is probably a big part of that too.
My thinking is that there’s also physical health issues and other issues that make physical activity less viable. Human travel (walking/biking) would be a big help*, or just more time/space/money/comfort/motivation(s)** (alternatively: if healthy options were more of a norm/incentive rather than a lucrative market to chase) which is even less likely than changes to zoning/density and infrastructure.
In any case sure, improving someone’s life in 1 aspect will provide benefits… but is anyone actually going to help with that or is it going to just result in more of the same platitudes that are already heard? I don’t think any study has much chance to create policy in the USA any decade soon.
*=That’s from experience… I’m in a semi-rural area, started biking right before the trail closed for renovation ~6months ago. Still closed, no ETA other than “early 2024”.
**=Aside from health/personal/travel reasons, maybe it’s for a hobby. Getting something out of the activity (money, electric, usable mechanical energy) would be nice if it weren’t a problem of cost/storage/loss/logistics etc.
EDIT: And I should say Bowling Alone is in force here too, but again money is probably a big part of that too.