Regular exercise is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. It builds strength and flexibility; helps prevent high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary artery disease, and obesity; and may reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. Whether you are 40 or 75, it can make you look and feel younger than your years. And it can not only improve your mood and reduce anxiety, it also help relieve or possibly prevent depression.

In the mid-1980s, when the Wellness Letter first appeared, people were already talking about the emotional satis- faction of exercise. Many said they experienced it as a kind of euphoria. I’ve exercised for most of my adult life, and though it has never produced euphoria in me, I know that exercise does make me feel better. I have always subscribed to the classical notion of a sound mind in a sound body.

In the last 30 years scientists have become much more interested in the effects of exercise on mental well-being. This is a difficult subject to study; physical effects are easier to measure than emotions. There’s been no large- scale, controlled study, but research shows fairly consistently that exercise can help improve mood and even alleviate clinical depression.

— Dr. John Swartzberg. M.D., Chair, Editorial Board, UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, November 2002. P. 3.