Studies have shown that a healthy lifestyle with regular social connection, healthy sleep, healthy food, moderate alcohol consumption and regular physical activity at the same time avoids an excessive amount of sedentary behaviors and smoking, reduces the risk of depression.
The researchers examined a combination of factors such as brain structure, genetics, lifestyle factors as well as the metabolic and immune system to determine the underlying mechanisms that could explain this relationship.
According to the WHO, about 1 out of 20 people suffer from depression, and the disorder provides considerable burden on public health worldwide. The factors that influence the beginning of depression are complex and include a combination of lifestyle and biological factors.
In order to examine the connection between depression and these factors, the data of the British Bioank, a research resource that contains health, lifestyle and the genetic details of the participants were used.
By considering data from almost 290,000 people, of whom 13,000 depression performed, the researchers were able to identify 7 healthy lifestyle factors that were associated with a reduced risk of depression. These were:
- Frequent social connection
- Low to moderate -sitting behavior
- Never smoke
- Healthy sleep
- Regular physical activity
- Moderate alcohol consumption
- Healthy eating
A good sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night was the biggest difference between all factors for reducing depression risk by 22%, including the treatment -resistant depression and a single depressive episoden.
A regular social connection had the most protective effect against recurring depression, which generally lowered the risk of depression by 18%.
Smoking never reduced the risk of depression by 20%, regular physical activity reduced the risk of depression by 14%, a low to medium -off settlement behavior reduced the risk of depression by 13%, moderate alcohol consumption reduced the risk of depression by 11%and one Healthy eating reduced risk of depression by 6%.
The individuals were assigned 1 out of 3 groups, depending on how many healthy lifestyle factors they recorded: cheaper lifestyle, medium lifestyle and less favorable lifestyle.
The intermediate groups participants were about 41% less likely compared to the unfavorable lifestyle individuals, while the cheap lifestyle individuals had 57% more depression.
The researchers then examined their DNA and assign each participant a genetic risk score based on the number of genetic variants of the person, which is known that they are associated with risk of depression.
People with the lowest score for genetic risk were 25% less likely to develop depression compared to people with the highest score for genetic risk, a much lower influence compared to lifestyle.
In people with low, medium and high genetic risk risk, the researchers also observed that a healthy lifestyle can reduce the risk of depression.
These results underline the importance of compliance with a healthy lifestyle to prevent depression, regardless of the genetic risk of an individual.
Although our DNA can increase the risk of depression, the study shows that a healthy lifestyle may be more important.
For some of these lifestyle factors there is a certain amount of control. The search for improvements, for example after getting out to make contacts and ensure that we get a good sleep, can affect people.
In order to determine how a healthy lifestyle reduces the risk of depression, the researchers examined several other factors.
First they examined MRI brain scans of less than 33,000 people and observed several brain areas in which a larger volume, ie more connections and neurons were connected to a healthy lifestyle to which the Amygdala, Hippocampus, Pallidum and Thalamus belonged.
Then they searched for blood markers who proposed problems with the metabolism or in the immune system. Regarding the markers that were shown that they were associated with lifestyle, a molecule generated in the body, which reacted to stress, which is known as a C-reactive protein, and one of the main types of fat that the body for storage used by energy known as triglycerides.
These connections are supported by several other studies. The stress of stress in life can affect how efficient blood sugar is regulated, which can lead to a deterioration in immune function and accelerate age -related damage to the molecules and cells of the body.
Lack of sleep and inadequate physical activity can damage the body’s ability to react to stress. It was shown that inadequate social support and loneliness increase the immune function markers and the risk of infection.
The researchers found that the lifestyle was most important to the metabolism and immune function. A poorer lifestyle influences our metabolism and our immune system, which then increases the risk of depression.
Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay
