Exercise and preventing depression - it works but only if you're having fun

Exercise can help to stave off depression but only if you do it in your spare time. Researchers from Norway and the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London studied 40,401 Norwegians asking them about their physical activity and their levels of anxiety and depression. They found that people who took part in regular physical activity - no matter how intense - were less likely to have symptoms of depression. However, this relationship only held true for activity done during leisure time; those people whose work involved physical effort were as likely to be depressed as those people who worked in sedentary jobs. The more people engaged in physical activity during their spare time the less likely they were to be depressed and those who were not active outside work were almost twice as likely to suffer symptoms of depression as more active individuals.