{"id":846877,"date":"2026-09-13T23:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/846877\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T23:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:38:12","slug":"can-walking-help-you-feel-less-depressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/846877\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Walking Help You Feel Less Depressed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever been told to \u2018take a walk\u2019 during a heated situation, you\u2019d probably, albeit begrudgingly, agree that a couple of steps can help you cool off. But what if that\u2019s just a tiny sample of the benefits of walking<\/a>, and what it can do for your mood?<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people come to me with mood concerns, and many of them are surprised when I tell them to make sure they\u2019re exercising<\/a>,\u201d says Elizabeth Kera, PhD<\/a>, a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist at Hackensack University Medical Center. \u201cI tell them that it\u2019s just like taking an antidepressant medication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turns out, whether you suffer from clinically diagnosed depression or just feel kind of down<\/a>, walking might actually be<\/a> one of the best things you can do to turn your mood around. But how long\u2014and how often\u2014 would you need to walk for it to actually make a difference?<\/p>\n

What the research says<\/p>\n

A 2024 review<\/a> published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that walking for approximately 35 minutes a day\u2014notably, four times a week\u2014was enough to improve depressive symptoms. \u201cThe latest science supports walking as a real, low-cost mood tool,\u201d says Rab Nawaz Khan, MD<\/a>, a board-certified neurologist. \u201cThe practical message is simple: Walking does not have to be perfect, intense, or long to matter\u2014but it does need to be repeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

A separate 2024 meta-analysis<\/a> published by JAMA Network Open reinforced the connection between walking and depression. After analyzing data from nearly 100,000 subjects, the researchers noticed that walking 5,000 steps a day (roughly 2\u20132.5 miles) was associated with fewer depressive symptoms, and walking 7,500 or more steps a day reduced symptoms by as much as 42 percent. The study also suggested a potential protective effect against developing depression. The results showed that subjects who increased their daily mileage by just 1,000 steps reduced their risk of developing depression by nine percent, and those walking 7,000 steps or more per day reduced their risk by 31 percent.<\/p>\n

The antidepressant powers of walking appear to be available to everyone, no matter how slight or severe your current state, says Kirk Erickson, PhD<\/a>, director of translational neuroscience at AdventHealth Research Institute. \u201cThe effects seem to be largest in the people you might expect\u2014those who have more clinically definable and identifiable levels of depression,\u201d he says, \u201cbut we and others have also noted that even in people with subsyndromal depressive symptoms\u2014in other words, people that might be feeling a little bit down but aren\u2019t really meeting clinically high levels of depressive symptoms\u2014if you get them walking for a period of time, we can see improvements in mood.\u201d<\/p>\n

How walking fights depression<\/p>\n

While the research is clear that moving your body can mitigate the symptoms of depression, scientists are still working to understand exactly how this happens. \u201cThe beauty of physical activity is that it really affects every organ system that we know of,\u201d says Dr. Erickson. \u201cScientifically, however, that creates a lot of challenges, because there\u2019s so much that happens with even modest amounts of physical activity that it\u2019s difficult to pinpoint the molecular pathways that are driving the benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExercise helps mood through several pathways at once,\u201d says Dr. Khan. \u201cIt increases blood flow to the brain and supports chemicals involved in mood regulation, including serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which helps the brain adapt and form healthier connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also affects the brain through peripheral pathways,\u201d adds Dr. Erickson. \u201cMuscles<\/a> release chemicals called myokines<\/a>\u201d\u2014small signaling proteins, or peptides<\/a>\u2014\u201cthat can cross the blood-brain barrier and induce a cascade of different events in the brain that result in a reduction in depressive symptoms.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve ever been told to \u2018take a walk\u2019 during a heated situation, you\u2019d probably, albeit begrudgingly, agree…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,97,67025,259,11657],"class_list":["post-846877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-life-advice","tag-mental-health","tag-working-out"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}