Is Exercise the Miracle Drug We’ve Been Waiting For? The Number One Way to Strengthen Your Mind and Fight Depression with Dr. Nicholas Fabiano

Dhru Purohit Show

Dhru Purohit

Medicine, Health & Fitness, Alternative Health

4.7 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is brought to you by BiOptimizers, Cozy Earth, and Fatty15. When we think about treating depression, we rarely consider exercise. Yet emerging research shows it can be a powerful tool for managing mild to moderate depression, and it works well alongside other therapies—including medication. Today’s guest shares the science behind exercise and explores why more practitioners aren’t incorporating it into treatment conversations. Today on The Dhru Purohit Show, Dhru sits down with Dr. Nicholas Fabiano to explore the powerful role of exercise in treating depression. Dr. Fabiano introduces the FITT protocol for prescribing exercise and sheds light on the disconnect between physicians and patients when it comes to exercise recommendations. Dhru and Dr. Fabiano also discuss how research funding can shape treatment perspectives, the benefits of combining medication with lifestyle interventions, and the emerging role of creatine in brain energy and its potential impact on depression. Dr. Fabiano emphasizes why exercise is essential for mental health and advocates for a holistic approach to treating depression—one that includes lifestyle pillars like diet and sleep. Nicholas Fabiano is a psychiatry resident and researcher at the University of Ottawa. Drawing from his personal background in weightlifting and competitive soccer, Nicholas developed a strong interest in the use of exercise as a treatment for mental disorders, particularly depression. His research focuses on the intersection of mental and physical health, with a special emphasis on lifestyle psychiatry—exploring how exercise, diet, and sleep influence mental well-being. In this episode, Dhru and Dr. Fabiano dive into: Exercise can be as effective as therapy in treating depression (00:27) The importance of finding a provider who exercises and understands its benefits (01:57) The impact of exercise on both the brain and body (04:53) The misperception that all patients want quick fixes (11:11) The side effects of medication and how lifestyle interventions can help counter them (19:18) The FITT protocol and how to prescribe it effectively (23:56) Reframing exercise as an intervention that empowers patients (31:54) Heart rate variability, and why doing what you enjoy matters (31:42) The benefits of stacking exercise with creatine (38:33) How to incorporate creatine into your diet (44:24) Exercise recommendations for beginners, family, and friends (45:02) A lifestyle protocol that can actually induce depression (49:33) Advocating for and educating the public on foundational principles (59:06) An entrepreneurial approach to solving the mental health crisis (01:03:21) How Dr. Fabiano became passionate about brain health (01:05:59) His advice for beginners and how to follow his work (01:11:27) Also mentioned in this episode: John Abramson's book - Sickening Try This: Three Super Crazy Facts about Big Pharma Study on BPA in pregnant women For more on Dr. Fabiano, follow him on Instagram, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and his Website. This episode is brought to you by BiOptimizers, Cozy Earth, and Fatty15. Go to bioptimizers.com/dhru now and enter promo code DHRU10 to get 10% off any order of Sleep Breakthrough and find out this month’s gift with purchase. Right now, get 40% off your Cozy Earth sheets. Just head over to cozyearth.com/dhru and use code DHRUP. Fatty15 is offering an additional 15% off its 90-day subscription Starter Kit. Go to fatty15.com/dhru and use code DHRU to replenish your C15 levels for long-term health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Dr. Nicholas Fabiano, welcome to the podcast.
0:03.1	You know, there is a pretty mind-blowing belief that you have about treating depression.
0:08.0	And that belief is that most people, including many medical practitioners, have no idea that exercise can be as powerful as a tool to treat depression as talk therapy and medication.
0:23.5	Can you expand on that?
0:24.5	Traditionally, we viewed exercise as a treatment for many different things,
0:28.4	more so in the physical realm.
0:29.8	So you often hear your doctor talking to you about these things for diabetes
0:33.1	or weight loss and stuff of that sort.
0:35.2	But it's been more mainstream recently as the research
0:37.9	just came out to show that exercise, just similar to, as you mentioned, therapy or even antidepressant
0:43.0	medications, can have similar antidepressant effects if prescribed correctly. So I think this notion for some
0:49.3	people is received very well, for others, maybe not so well. But even for providers, for instance, in Canada
0:55.7	here, it's one of the first line treatment options that we have in our guidelines. But many people
1:00.0	aren't aware of that. So I think with that, we have the evidence for it. We know its benefits.
1:04.3	The next part is really educating people and also the providers about how to do that. And that's where
1:08.8	that disconnect really lies. Well, we're going to get into that but right away i want to take a quick tip that you have for anybody who's listening
1:16.1	who might be dealing with some spectrum of depression there's mild medium severe or even people that
1:24.3	find themselves in more of a depressive or low mood, but maybe don't have a
1:29.9	clinical diagnosis. And you have an important tip that I'll steal from one of other podcasts that
1:34.9	you were on. And that tip is if you as the patient are looking for a provider, ideally if you
1:41.2	can find somebody who has some background in working out themselves, because
1:46.2	if they as a physician or a health care provider is working out, they're more likely to be
	...

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