Dhru Purohit Show
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
26 Mar 2025
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
Full Episode
Dr. Nicholas Fabiano, welcome to the podcast. You know, there is a pretty mind-blowing belief that you have about treating depression. 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. Can you expand on that?
Traditionally, we viewed exercise as a treatment for many different things, more so in the physical realm. So you often hear your doctor talking to you about these things for diabetes or weight loss and stuff of that sort.
But it's been more mainstream recently as the research just came out to show that exercise, just similar to, as you mentioned, therapy or even antidepressant medications, can have similar antidepressant effects if prescribed correctly. So I think this notion for some people is received very well, for others, maybe not so well.
But even for providers, for instance, in Canada here, it's one of the first line treatment options that we have in our guidelines. But many people aren't aware of that. So I think with that, we have the evidence for it. We know its benefits. The next part is really educating people and also the providers about how to do that. And that's where that disconnect really lies.
Well, we're gonna get into that, but right away, I wanna take a quick tip that you have for anybody who's listening, who might be dealing with some spectrum of depression. There's mild, medium, severe, or even people that find themselves in more of a depressive or low mood, but maybe don't have a clinical diagnosis.
And you have an important tip that I'll steal from one of other podcasts that you were on. And that tip is, if you as the patient are looking for a provider.
Ideally, if you can find somebody who has some background in working out themselves, because if they, as a physician or a healthcare provider is working out, they're more likely to be prioritizing and recommending this as part of their treatment program. Can you expand on that?
Research has shown at a family or primary care physician level that, as you mentioned, people that are exercising more, so the providers, are more likely to have that discussion with their patients. And that extends to things like depression. And that's important.
As you mentioned, when you're looking for a doctor, if that's something you want to talk about, it's hard if the physician that you're speaking with isn't open to that discussion. So there's that disconnect there. But the other part stems even deeper beyond people that have their own experience with exercise and want to prescribe it.
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