Can You Really "Walk Off" Depression?

My friend Mary and I were walking at the OHS track yesterday, and as usual, after I came home I felt much more content and less stressed than before I went. So I started wondering if there was a direct application to depression for talking a good long walk multiple times a week. We call these walks our "Mental Health" sessions, so it might be that the talking is more helpful than the walking. Since I didn't have a clue I did a little research.

1. Recent research involving people aged 24 to 45 showed that a half-hour's exercise (including brisk walking) three to five times a week has the same (or better) effect on depression than prescription drugs by regularly reducing symptoms by 50%.
2. Meditation also seems to work. Richard Davidson, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison had Tibetan monks meditate on "unconditional-loving kindness and compassion". An unusual pattern of gamma brain waves resulted, suggesting the production of dopamine was occurring. This is the chemical that is typically lacking in depressive people.

So then, my right brain asked, is depression at such a high level these days due to couch potato inactivity and watching depressive or violent TV? And my left brain answered, perhaps in past generations more people worked longer and harder at home, on farms, and at other occupations. This would preclude a lot of TV watching, and exercise the body. There also didn't used to be much direct bloody violence on TV until the last 15 years or so.

That's my hypothesis anyway. If you want to join in our mental health walking sessions, we meet at OHS track at 8 a.m. Mon, Wed and Fri. I'll be out of it for a few weeks tho, we're on vacation next week and I'm having surgery (girl stuff) on the 16th of June. Happy walking and talking.