Depression Speeds Aging
Prior research has identified a trend between people who suffer from major depressive disorder and an increased onset risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer – and now a new study provides evidence for a molecular link that potentially helps explain why.
The researchers took blood samples from more than 2,000 volunteers: one-third of whom had been suffering from major depression at the time, another third who had suffered depressive episodes in the past, and a final third who were never depressed and served as controls. What they discovered is that, among both subjects who were currently depressed and those who had experienced depression in the past, there were signs of accelerated cellular aging in the form of shorter telomeres (with those who had more severe depression and longer duration symptoms having the shortest telomeres) – which would be a logical explanation for why they would be at increased risk for age-related diseases (though a causative link has yet to be established).
Source:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38275/title/Depression-Speeds-Aging/
Reference:
http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/mp2013151a.html
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And this new to who???
ReplyDeleteKind of a "Duh!"
Duh indeed, but this study is relatively new Robert Plumlee even "we all knew" =)
ReplyDeleteSorry Corina Marinescu - did not mean to offend.
ReplyDeleteI've been a grumpy old man for a long time. :-)
I have the impression that depression is a cocktail of moods grouped by having similar effects but from different causes. I believe that I had a depressive period of life myself. But the cause of it was very different from other depressions I see. When selecting people for the scientific experiment, isn't possible that only depressions from a particular cause were favored against others, which would mean that the real link with aging would be the cause and not it's effect (depression)? There could be a bias on the selection pool.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if the definition of Wikipedia is complete but I'll just quote it here: "Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings and sense of well-being. Depressed people feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, worried, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, hurt, or restless."
You said it yourself...each and every person who has ever experienced depression will have his or her own take on what it’s like.
ReplyDeleteSo is hard to find people with the same particular cause as you suggested João Ferreira .
If we use the mirror effect and try to imply that some people age faster and therefore they may have depression episodes well that sounds more like bipolar disorder to me.
Depression is fundamentally a uniquely personal experience which is often lonely and bleak.
It does make sense that most of neuro affections affects our bodies, not only mentally but at the cellular level as well.