Prepare to have your health questions answered
here on Safe, Effective, Natural Solutions with
Dr. Todd Binkley, owner of Binkley Healing Center
in downtown Ventura. Now, here's Dr. Todd. Good
afternoon. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley, board -certified
doctor of non -force chiropractic and practitioner
of... Functional medicine. Today I'm going to
be talking about some safe, effective, natural
solutions for mood disorders like depression
and anxiety. There's a commonly overlooked or
forgotten or at least indefinitely postponed
means of dramatically reducing depression and
anxiety than anyone can do right now. And I hope
that you'll share this show. If people you know
in your life, people that you love, are suffering
from depression, anxiety -related mood disorders,
I hope you'll share with them this podcast version
of this show, which will be available on my website
soon. Tell people how to find that. I hope you'll
do that. And in case someone who is listening
to this is going through a tough time right now,
the most important thing to know is that when
you're in a cycle of feeling fantastic and then
miserable, and then fine again, and then feeling
like nothing is ever going to go your way. The
most important thing to know about that is emotions
are cyclical. You will feel differently in an
hour, maybe a day or two, maybe a week, maybe
a little bit longer, but things always do change.
And of course, many people have experienced this
and are still holding on to knowledge and direct
experience that their mood will change. But what
happens after a few hundred cycles of that, clinging
to the hope that things will change, and time
passes and they don't? Well, a key focus of my
practice has always been identifying nutrient
deficiencies based on objective testing that
can be supplemented in the short term to break
that cycle, to get you back the energy you need,
relief from pain, stiffness, even directly relieve
anxiety. fatigue, whatever other symptoms are
stopping you from getting back to the place where
you used to feel great. So today I'm excited
to share some information that was in the news
again this week that I probably don't talk enough
about on this show. How exercise fights anxiety
and depression. Some major articles came out
in the news this week on this subject. And when
it comes to mental health, most treatments for
conditions like depression and anxiety come with
caveats. Medications work for some symptoms but
can exacerbate others. Cognitive behavioral therapy
is effective for many patients but not all. So
there's one strategy that seems to work for most
people and almost all experts endorse and that
is regular exercise. So I'm pretty sure most
of you already know about this or have at least
heard about it. But I'm also constantly reminded
of the benefits of exercise in ways that perhaps
you and people you love might not be. So I'm
wondering if I should be mentioning this more
often. So here goes. Many decades of research
have established the fact that exercise has a
positive effect on mental health. For example,
here's a study published in the Journal of American
Medical Association in April of 2024 titled Physical
Fitness Among Children and Adolescents May Protect
Against Developing Depressive Symptoms, Anxiety,
and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
So the study found that better performance in
cardiovascular activities, as well as strength
and muscular endurance, were each associated
with greater protection against mental health
conditions. And they deemed this linkage dose
-dependent, meaning that a child or adolescent
who is more fit is accordingly less likely to
experience the onset of a mental health disorder.
And these findings come amid a surge of mental
health diagnoses among children in the United
States and around the world. And so it's a really
important thing to understand and to pass on.
So this is a study conducted by researchers in
Taiwan that compared data from two large data
sets, the Taiwan National Student Fitness Test,
which measures student fitness performance in
schools, and the National... Insurance Research
Database, which records medical claims, diagnoses,
prescriptions, and other medical information.
So they were able to use this anonymized data
to compare the students' physical fitness and
mental health results. And they measured physical
fitness in three ways. Cardio fitness they measured
by doing a student's time in an 800 -meter run.
Muscle endurance by the number of sit -ups they
could perform. And muscle power measured by a
standing broad jump. Improved performance in
each activity was linked with a lower risk of
mental health disorder. For example, a 30 -second
decrease in the 800 -meter time was associated
in girls with a lower risk of depression, anxiety,
and ADHD. In boys, it was associated with lower
anxiety and risk of the disorder. An increase
of five sit -ups per minute was associated with
lower anxiety and risk of anxiety in boys and
decreased risk of depression and anxiety in girls.
So even small amounts and increase in improvement
in physical fitness dramatically reduced their
risk of these mental disorders. So that's pretty
exciting because it shows that even modest improvements
in an exercise routine can make dramatic improvements
on risk and severity of mental health disorders.
But while that's on kids, right, they're resilient,
they respond quickly or more quickly to anything.
So what about adults? Well, here's another study
that was published in the British Medical Journal
in January of 2024. In patients with mild to
moderate depression, a wide range of exercise
regimens has been shown to be as effective as
medications like SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitors. These are the most common treatments
for anxiety and depression. Medications like
Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil, Lexapro. It is important
to recognize that a lot of times these medications
are necessary when someone is in a crisis, and
this study, in fact, showed that the best results
generally involved a combination of medications
and exercise. Well, I like to practice what I
preach. When I'm in my office seeing patients,
I am on my feet most of the day, and I stretch
for at least 30 to 45 minutes every day, sometimes
for two or three hours. I also love cycling,
and I do some strength training at least once
a week. But over the past 35 years in practice,
I've seen how difficult it can be for so many
people to do any kind of exercise. They might
be in pain or just have stiffness, arthritis,
or still be suffering from the effects of old
injuries, or just be fatigued, just have so much
fatigue, just be so tired all the time from work
or any number of things that may be going on,
which we can often identify. But the bottom line
is if they can't do it, then recommending more
exercise is not going to help them in that moment.
And of course, time is always a factor. You do
have to put in the time to do exercise. But if
you're truly motivated to make a change, there
is always a way to incorporate a little more
movement into your daily and weekly routines.
There's nearly always a way to identify a few
gentle stretches and strength training exercises
that you can do wherever you are now. And, you
know, sometimes that requires some instruction,
but walking is something that anyone can do.
It's the simplest thing, no equipment required,
no memberships. And, you know, if you're creative,
if you, you know, look around, you can find a
way to make it fun. Make it fun and easy. The
best exercise anyone should do and the best exercise
for you is the one that you can make fun, that
you can incorporate easily into your life so
that you will do it regularly. Well, how about
a quick walk around the block? Like a 20 or 30
minute walk first thing in the morning when no
one else is out in your own neighborhood. There's
one of the easiest ways to get yourself moving.
It's free. It's a fantastic way to start the
day. Cool, fresh air. Mostly quiet. Listen to
the birds in the trees. Check out what your neighbors
are up to. When I'm going on morning walks, I
like to check out people's yards, people's landscapes.
I notice other people, interesting things that
people have planted when I'm driving by on the
way to and from work or cycling. But if you're
out walking, you can check them out up close
in detail, even snap a couple of pictures of
things I like for ideas and often even meet those
neighbors and even make a new friend or two.
I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. You're listening to Safe,
Effective, Natural Solutions to Almost Any Health
Challenge. Today, specifically, the challenge
of maintaining good mental health. Ways to reduce
depression and anxiety directly with exercise,
regular exercise, and much less exercise than
you might have suspected. Moving regularly can
also improve sleep. and reduce stress. Here's
another study that was published in the International
Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical
Activity in June of 2024, titled The Impact of
Exercise on Depression. How moving makes your
brain and body make your brain feel better and
your body. And mainly through endorphin production,
which are neurotransmitters associated with positive
mood and feelings of well -being. And they documented
how exercise significantly improves sleep, reduces
stress and anxiety. and enhances self -esteem
and social support. Of course, it's easy for
anyone to demonstrate this to themselves by just
simply getting out. and moving around. But if
you're struggling to do that or forgotten how
great it can feel to do that, and you're just
wondering, hopefully providing evidence like
these studies I'm citing today will motivate
you to get out and do something if you're not
already, or maybe something that you can share
with others to motivate them. So here's another
study, Exercise and Mental Health, published
in the journal Maturitas, the official journal
of the European Menopause and Andropause Society.
It's an international, multidisciplinary, peer
-reviewed Journal of Midlife Health. And they
outlined several other mechanisms by which exercise
improves mood and mental health. And so these
include, they're a little bit technical, but
they include things like the endorphin hypothesis,
thermogenic hypothesis, improvements in mitochondrial
dysfunction. the mammalian target of rapamycin,
that's one I've not heard of, neurotransmitter
dysfunction, and HPA axis, which is mainly referring
to adrenal function, adrenal fatigue, exhaustion
from stress. And so all of these have some data,
significant enough data, to suggest that they're
important components of this phenomenon of how
exercise helps mental health, that they are all
undergoing specific studies to expand on them.
So hopefully we'll find out more about that later.
And if you're involved in team sports, this will
be obvious. If you're a parent with a child that's
in team sports, this is obvious. But if you're
somebody who lives on your own or you know someone
who lives on their own, it may help them to understand
that exercise routines and sports help provide
a distraction from negative thoughts and ruminations.
directly provide a boost in self -esteem by mastering
something, becoming accomplished in a skill that
perhaps may be new to you. And then just the
social aspect of physical activity with other
people can provide a great outlet for people
suffering from depression, anxiety, or any form
of stress. Chronic inflammation, which underlies
so many diseases of aging especially, has also
been attributed as a cause of depression and
poor mental health. And there's a growing body
of evidence linking the immune and the nervous
systems. There has been actually for a long time.
This article is saying that it's presenting it
as though it's something new. We've actually
known a lot about that for quite a long time.
But anyway, it's increasingly clear that the
immune system plays a vital part in the development
of mental health disorders, including anxiety
and depression. so many ways to reduce inflammation
with Better food with exercise, with better food,
with some certain nutrients that you can take.
You can test inflammatory markers to see how
inflamed your system is right now with blood
tests like C -reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation
rate, ESR, which measures the viscosity of your
blood. Your blood gets thicker when you have
a lot of inflammatory debris floating around
in it. And there's a whole host of other blood
tests that you can use to measure how inflamed
you are right now, even if you don't feel particularly
inflamed. then use that as a metric to try something
new to reduce inflammation and measure it again
to make sure that you're getting the improvement
you're looking for. But today we're focusing
on exercise. And you may have heard, and if you
haven't, research definitely has supported for
a long time that the main cardiovascular benefits,
reducing your risk of heart disease and dementia,
those two always go together, weight loss, all
the many other general health benefits that you
can get from exercising. are generally best attained
by exercising something like 30 to 45 minutes
a day. 30 minutes a day, five times a week, 45
minutes a day, three times a week, something
in that range. And the connection between mental
health benefits from exercise are the same. 45
minutes, three to five times a week. For example,
this is a study published in... The British journal
Lancet Psychiatry, a study on 1 .2 million Americans
from 2011 to 2015, and those who exercised had
43 % fewer days of poor mental health in the
previous month than those who did not exercise.
And all the exercise types, any kind of exercise
basically, they showed has a lower risk of mental
health burden. but it ranged from 12 % to 22
% compared to not exercising. The largest associations
were seen for popular team sports and cycling,
22 % lower, and aerobic and gym activities, 20
% lower, as well as doing any kind of exercise
for at least 45 minutes at a frequency of 3 to
5 times per week. So this isn't really news.
Most people have heard that something in that
range is the ideal frequency of exercise to do.
But this is a study of 1 .2 million people. So
if you ever had any doubts whether it was worth
to do 30 minutes instead of 20 minutes or five
times a week instead of three times a week, that
little extra push, if you can manage it or if
you're already doing it, good for you. And if
you're not, then if you're not doing anything
like that amount of exercise, if there's no way
you can just imagine, even imagine doing. exercise
for that long or three to five days a week, if
you're only able to do it once a week or for
a far fewer period of time because of fatigue,
because of arthritis, because of weight, because
of a whole host of issues that can make it virtually
impossible to exercise for some people in certain
situations, then there is also hope. Here is
another study that was published in the Proceedings
of the Natural Academy of Sciences in September
of 2024 about rapid stimulation of human dentate
gyrus function with acute mild exercise. So what
does that mean? Well, the human dentate gyrus
function is a part of the brain associated with
improved memory function. 10 seconds of mild,
almost languorous exercise can immediately alter
how certain parts of the brain communicate and
coordinate with one another to improve. memory
function is basically what this study is showing.
So actually, this is suggesting, at least for
brain health, that exercise does not need to
be prolonged or intense. It will still benefit
the brain and the effects can begin far more
quickly than we previously suspected. Multiple
studies with mice and rats have found that when
animals run on wheels or treadmills, they develop
more new brain cells than if they remain sedentary.
And many of these cells are clustered in the
hippocampus. part of the brain that's essential
for memory creation and storage. And these animals
also perform better on tests of learning and
memory. Well, the hippocampus is the part of
the brain that's first damaged or destroyed in
most patients with Alzheimer's disease. That
is the part where you form new memories. So if
you've ever known somebody who's had dementia,
you've probably noticed that they have a lot
of their older memories. They just have difficulty
remembering anything that just happened because
that part of the brain that forms and deposits,
and stores, new memories is the part that is
hit first. So in these animal studies, they're
showing that exercise is literally directly improving
those most important cells. Well, to be clear,
they weren't putting these rats and mice in MRI
scans to see changes in their brain. To see this
level of detail and specific types of cellular
improvement, they have to do an autopsy. So it's
not possible to do equivalent experiments examining
the brain tissue in people. But some past studies
have shown that people who exercise regularly
have larger, healthier hippocampus cells, tissue,
than those who do not, especially as they grow
older. And even one bout of exercise this research
is suggesting can help most of us focus and learn
better than if we sit still. But most of these
studies have involved moderate or vigorous exercise,
such as jogging or brisk walking, and often for
weeks or months at a time. So the idea that a
single brief spurt of very easily... performed
exercise would produce desirable changes in the
brain has never really been shown before. So
this new study, which was published in September
of 2024 in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, scientists from the University of
California in Irvine and the University of Tsukuba
in Japan. used a group of healthy young college
students, in part because they're easy to come
by on college campuses, but also because bright,
healthy young men and women should have brains
and memories that are already functioning well.
So for any kind of experiment to produce improvements
in their brain function, its effects would need
to be pretty potent. to improve on a young person's
brain that already should be perfectly healthy.
So the scientists invited the students into the
lab and had them sit quietly on a stationary
bicycle for 10 minutes or on a separate visit,
pedal the bicycle at a pace so gentle it barely
even raised their heart rates. So just to confirm
how technically they did this, I mean, this is
really impressive what they did. They measured
this exercise to be performed at 30 % of each
volunteer's heart rate reserve. which is the
difference between their maximum heart rate and
their resting heart rate. So in other words,
you test their resting heart rate, you test their
maximum heart rate. The difference between those
two is the reserve, what they have available
to tap into very quickly. And this is performed
at only 30 % of that. So that is verifying that
this is really gentle exercise, basically, that
anybody can do. And by comparison, brisk walking.
would normally raise someone's heart reserve
rate to about 50%. So this is really easy exercise,
and it was only for 10 minutes. Well, immediately
after each session of sitting or slow pedaling,
the students completed a computerized memory
test, which they would see a brief picture, for
instance, of a tree, followed by a variety of
other images, and then a new image of either
the same tree or a similar one. The students
would press buttons to show whether they thought
the image that they saw was a new one or the
same as the earlier shot. So this test is difficult
because since many of the images closely resemble
one another, it requires rapid shuffling through
recent memories to decide whether a picture of
a tree is the same one they saw before or a new
one. So then they had the scientists, they had
each student repeat this sequence, riding or
sitting on a bike. for 10 minutes, and then completing
the memory testing. But the testing now took
place inside an MRI machine that scanned their
brains while they responded to the images. And
then they compared the results. Well, the effects
of exercise, undemanding as it was, were clear.
The young people were better at remembering images
after they had ridden the bike, especially when
the images most closely resembled one another.
In other words, the harder their memories had
to strain, the better they performed. after exercise.
And more unexpectedly, their brains also worked
differently after they had ridden. The MRI scans
showed that the portions of each student's hippocampus
that's so important for creating new memories
lit up in synchronized fashion with the parts
of the brain associated with learning, indicating
that these physically separate parts of the brain
were better connected now than when the students
had not exercised. So that's amazing, and that's
showing that better than any research I've ever
seen before, how directly even a brief 10 -minute
period of gentle exercise is directly affecting
and improving and restoring brain, potentially
restoring brain function. So the greater the
coordination between these disparate parts of
the brain, the better the students performed
on the memory test. So it's exciting to see these
effects occurring so quickly. And they show that
exercise can change people's brains right away
without requiring weeks of workout and with minimal
exertion. Basically exercise that anyone can
do. I'm Dr. Todd Binkley. You're listening to
Safe, Effective Natural Solutions to Almost Any
Health Challenge. Before we finish up today,
I want to do an update. Last two episodes, I
talked about osteoporosis. And one of the things
I mentioned, trying to give women who are a little
heavier a break on other things they have to
worry about. It is true that if you are heavier
and especially thicker boned and densely built,
you have a much lower risk of osteoporosis than
thin women. So thin women have a much higher
risk of osteoporosis. osteoporosis, but that's
mainly thin middle -aged to younger women. Postmenopausal
women who are obese have, and actually have a
higher risk of ankle and upper leg fractures.
So this is a study that just came out since that
past episode, just this past week. American Journal
of Medicine published a study saying that obesity
is not protective against fracture in postmenopausal
women. Well, why is that? Well, what's the main
feature of postmenopause? Low estrogen. And estrogen
is a key part of metabolism that promotes the
activity of the osteoblasts, the bone -building
cells, which are the cells that make bone. And
when a person has low levels of estrogen, they
have an increased risk of osteoporosis. and fractures.
So when a person has low level of estrogen and
they're obese, the combination of those two is
going to be even worse. Low estrogen also contributes
to obesity in multiple ways that are just beginning
to be understood. But of course, if you have
a reduced capacity to rebuild, and extra weight
being carried by those bones, both of those things
are going to increase your risk of fracture.
So it is a good idea for any woman, even heavier
women over a certain age, if you have had fractures
before. Or if you find that a fracture takes
more time to heal or if you have a family history
of fractures, then it may be a good idea to get
a bone density scan as early as in your 50s as
opposed to waiting to the standard age 65 or
more. And then you know if you have good bone
density or not and you can take certain steps
to improve that bone density with the nutrients
that your body needs to heal and repair. bone
all the time. So if you have any questions about
osteoporosis, about how you can incorporate exercise,
or if you're having difficulty, if anything is
stopping you from exercising, if you have some,
if you or someone you love has just is so stiff
or in pain that they can't exercise, then I can
probably help you. And I'd love an opportunity
to identify ways to make it easier for you to
exercise. If you just have unrelenting fatigue,
there are a couple of dozen things that most
doctors never even check for. that contribute
to fatigue, which almost never has one cause.
It's a number of factors combining to make you
feel exhausted all the time. And then we can
identify those things. Unappropriate testing.
and get you feeling better. As always, thank
you for listening. Have a wonderful weekend.
You've been listening to Safe, Effective Natural
Solutions with Dr. Todd Binkley. If you have
a health question you want discussed on the show,
email your health questions to drbinkley at binkleyhealingcenter
.com Take advantage of this opportunity to ask
questions for yourself and for your loved ones
because our health matters. Join him next Friday
at 2 p .m. for safe, effective natural solutions
here on 98 .3 FM, The Word.