Exercise may beat breast cancer blues

Regular exercise and drinking green tea may help combat depression among breast cancer patients, reveals a new study. However, researchers warn against overdose.

Regular exercise and drinking green tea may help combat depression among breast cancer patients, reveals a new study.

However, lead researcher Dr. Xiao Ou Shu, at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, in Nashville, Tennessee has warned against overdose.

During the study, research team examined depression-related factors in 1,399 Chinese women who were 54 years old on average and treated for breast cancer between April 2002 and December 2006.

They noted that nearly 62 per cent of the women reported distinct benefits after some sort of exercise, reports China Daily. The exercisers were about 20 percent less likely to be either mildly or clinically depressed.

Moreover, the likelihood of depression was 28 percent lower among women who exercised more than 2 hours a week and 42 percent lower among those who increased their post-diagnosis exercise time.

Green tea also showed promise in reducing depression. Of 183 women who drank green tea, 36 percent had lower depression risk.