Anecdotally, Vitamin D and B12 had more of a positive effect on my mental health than therapy or any of the half dozen prescription meds I tried.

Hiking has the biggest effect though.

I think maybe the problem is that therapists are diagnosing people, and psychiatrists are prescribing pills based on those diagnoses, but neither are ordering bloodwork to check for deficiencies. Which leads to a lot of people suffering from lack of basic health, and treating the symptoms with SSRIs that have withdrawl symptoms a million times worse than most of the problems they treat.

Now to your point, I seriously doubt that vitamin D will hold up against anti-depressants and therapy if we control for other health and quality of life issues. I just think there is a ton of misdiagnosis, and lack of root cause analysis in the mental health field, and health care in general.

> Hiking has the biggest effect though.

Keeping the mind busy with beautiful things and being physically exhausted can heal a lot of things.

Its like surfing on a big day - you are just too tired to be depressive afterwards. It feels like a weight blanket.

> Hiking has the biggest effect though.

I remember reading that pine trees give off a chemical that is a natural human bronchodilator.

One thought of why people love hiking, especially in piney woods, is that the chemical allows humans to process more oxygen which in turn helps them feel more "energized".

I point this out for two reasons:

1. It's a fascinating bit of trivie

2. It highlights that there are MANY confounding variables so it will always be tough to figure out the isolated impact.

I bought an E-Bike two years ago and it’s changed my life. I want to ride my bike all the time, and am counting down the days to spring. During the warmer months I run all the errands I possibly can with my bike instead of driving, and ride for pleasure often, going on multi hour bike rides. It’s just such a blissful feeling, and as I’ve gotten more fit I’ve been able to turn down the bike assist and built a lot of leg muscles.