Minnesota researcher studying how exercise can prevent PPD

University of Minnesota School of Kinesiology Director Beth Lewis is leading a study to determine if exercise can help prevent postpartum depression (PPD). Lewis hopes to motivate women to exercise at the point in their life when it can be most difficult — during pregnancy and in the months after having a baby, the Star Tribune reported Oct. 26. It's during this stressful time that exercise can have an especially important impact on mental health, her research shows. Lewis, who runs the Exercise and Mental Health Lab at the University of Minnesota's School of Kinesiology, said, “We need low‐cost interventions to help prevent postpartum depression. Many health care providers will prescribe antidepressants. It's pretty controversial whether or not they're safe. [There have] been studies to show that they are, and then [there are] others that have questioned if they're safe or not. There's data to show that women may need higher doses because of the way they are metabolizing the antidepressant during pregnancy. So, [there are] a lot of issues with taking antidepressants. If you look at real, low‐cost interventions that people can do to help prevent postpartum depression, exercise is one of them.”