Sea swimming as a novel intervention for depression and anxiety - A feasibility study exploring engagement and acceptability - a singlearm, unblinded feasibility study. of 61 participants recruited to an eight-session sea-swimming course… with reductions showing large effect in the severity scores of both depression and anxiety between the beginning and end of the course.

Is the Comparison Between Exercise and Pharmacologic Treatment of Depression in the Clinical Practice Guideline of the American College of Physicians Evidence-Based? - “ review examining all RCTs and meta-analyses/systematic reviews published in 2009–2016 found exercise is an evidence-based medicine for depression – at least as an add-on to antidepressants, [and sometimes] equally effective in reducing symptoms of depression”

Cooper Institute Longitudinal Studies- “Longitudinal studies of 116,000 participants find people with greater levels of aerobic fitness had less risk of heart disease, chronic kidney disease, stroke, certain cancers, dementia, and more”

Non-Occupational Physical Activity and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer and Mortality Outcomes: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Large Prospective Studies - “75 min/week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity associated with…an appreciably lower risk of mortality, cardiovascular diseases and cancers”

Associations Between Commute Mode and Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, and All-Cause Mortality, and Cancer Incidence, Using Linked Census Data over 25 Years in England and Wales: A Cohort Study - Twenty-five years of census data in England and Wales finds a strong inverse relationship between cycling and all-cause mortality, cancer morbidity, and cardiovascular risk factors.”

Various Leisure-Time Physical Activities Associated with Widely Divergent Life Expectancies: The Copenhagen City Heart Study - 25 years of data from 8,000+ participants finds certain active sports can incrtase life expectancy… tennis (9.7 years); badminton (6.2 years), soccer (4.7 years), cycling (3.7 years), swimming (3.4 years), jogging (3.2 years), calisthenics (3.1 years), and health club activities (1.5 years)...the leisure-time sports that inherently involve more social interaction were associated with the best longevity”

(More coming soon)

Effects of Forest Environment (Shinrin-yoku/Forest Bathing) on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention: The Establishment of `Forest Medicine - “[Studies havef found than frest bathing] increases human natural killer (NK) activity, reduces blood pressure and heart rate, reduces stress hormones, increases the activity of parasympathetic nerves and reduces the activity of sympathetic nerves to stabilize the balance of autonomic nervous system, improves sleep, reduces the scores for anxiety, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion”

Nature Experience Reduces Rumination and Subgenual Prefrontal Cortex Activation - “Participants who went on a 90-min walk through a natural environment reported lower levels of rumination and showed reduced neural activity in an area of the brain linked to risk for mental illness compared with those who walked through an urban environment”

Children With Attention Deficits Concentrate Better After Walk in the Park - Seventeen children 7 to 12 years old professionally diagnosed with ADHD were assigned to take a 20 minute walk in a park or an urban setting. Children with ADHD concentrated better after the walk in the park than after the downtown walk … Effect sizes were substantial and comparable to those reported for recent formulations of methylphenidate (Ritalin).”

(Learn more in Forest Bathing by Dr. Qing Li)

(More coming soon)

Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants' Responses Following Art Making -Results [from a 45 minute visual art making session] indicate that art making resulted in statistically significant lowering of cortisol levels. Participants' written responses indicated that they found the art-making session to be relaxing, enjoyable, helpful for learning about new aspects of self, freeing from constraints, an evolving process of initial struggle to later resolution, and about flow/losing themselves in the work.

Effectiveness of Creative Arts-Based Interventions for Treating Children and Adolescents Exposed to Traumatic Events: A Systematic Review of the Quantitative Evidence and Meta-Analysis - “Pooled effect estimates indicated that arts-based interventions significantly reduced PTSD symptom scores compared to pre-intervention (15 studies, g = -.67, p < .001) and a control group (7 studies, g = -.50, p < .001). Significant reductions were also found for measures of negative mood”

Comparative efficacy and acceptability of bibliotherapy for depression and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials “bibliotherapy — [a method using books to guide and encourage the rea erto challenge unhelpful thoughts and behaviors] was significantly more effective than the control conditions in reducing the symptoms of depression or anxiety

Participatory and receptve arts engagement in older adults: Associations with cognition over a seven-year period - For older adults, doing 1-3 hours of arts activities per week helps to prevent cognitive decline, with similar benefits to exercising for 1 hour per week”

*For more studies on the power of arts as medicine, check EpiArts Lab - exploring the impact of arts and cultural engagement on population health outcomes in the US through epidemiological analyses of US cohort studies

(More coming soon)

The effects of choice and enhanced personal responsibility for the aged: a field experiment in an institutional setting - “An experimental group was given the freedom to make choices and the responsibility of caring for a plant rather than having decisions made and the plant taken care of for them by the staff…questionnaire ratings and behavioral measures showed a significant improvement for the experimental group over the comparison group on alertness, active participation, and a general sense of well-being.”

Association Between Life Purpose and Mortality Among US Adults Older Than 50 Years - “…study's results indicated that stronger purpose in life was associated with decreased mortality. (Learn more in Why Good Things Happen to Good People by Dr. Stephen Post)

(More coming soon)

The effect of housing and gender on morphine self-administration in rats - “To determine the effect of housing conditions on morphine self-administration, rats isolated in standard laboratory cages and rats living socially in a large open box (8.8 m2) were given morphine in solution (0.5 mg/ml) ….the isolated rats increased their consumption, but the socially housed animals decreased theirs.”

“Harvard study, almost 80 years old, has proved that embracing community helps us live longer, and be happier” — “Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives….Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.” (Learn more in The Good Life by Dr. Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz)

Synergy of pandemics-social isolation is associated with worsened Parkinson severity and quality of life- “Individuals who reported being lonely experienced a 55% greater symptom severity than those who were not lonely (P < 0.01). Individuals who documented having a lot of friends had 21% fewer symptoms than those with few or no friends (P < 0.01). Social isolation was associated with greater patient-reported PD severity and lower quality of life”

(Learn more in Together by Dr. Vivek Murthy)

(More coming soon)