DOCTOR’S NOTE: OBEY YOUR BIOLOGICAL
IMPERATIVES
Feeling the occasional bout of melancholy is a perfectly
normal, and probably even healthy, aspect of the human
condition. But if melancholia turns to negative self-talk,
remember: don’t judge your thought content or your mood
unless you’ve been working out regularly. If you didn’t
walk your dog or let him out to play or run around every
day, it would be considered animal abuse, and yet we seem
to think it’s okay to not move ourselves. Exercise should be
the last thing to be abandoned when you’re feeling busy or
overwhelmed, not the first. When tested head-to-head
against multiple antidepressants, three days a week of
moderate exercise was determined to be equally effective as
the pharmaceuticals, with the pleasant side effect of having
zero side effects! Treat yourself at least as well as you do
your puppy—you deserve it.
One enzyme that becomes activated during anaerobic
activity is called adenosine monophosphate-activated
protein kinase, or AMPK. Known as the metabolic “master
switch,” AMPK acts like a tuning fork to your mitochondria,
increasing fat burning and glucose uptake, and turning on
waste disposal machinery to clear up cellular junk (this
includes recycling old and damaged mitochondria).
Activating AMPK is such a powerful means of enhancing