For generations, people have been fascinated by the connections between the mind and body. For example, do people really die from a broken heart? Does a healthy mind mean a healthy body?

Scientists have been studying the links between mental and physical health for a while. One such link is depression and heart disease. Research has shown this depression is more common amongst individuals with heart disease in comparison with the overall population.

Moreover, in physically healthy people, when observed for a few years, they’re present in individuals with increased depressive symptoms more probable develop heart disease than individuals who don’t suffer from depression.

We also know that individuals with acute heart disease (for instance, after a heart attack) are accompanied by depression increased risk further heart attacks and death, not only from heart disease but from any cause.

However, fewer studies have examined whether these trends hold in the other way – that’s, whether cardiovascular risk aspects are related to a greater likelihood of depression. But now a new study published within the journal PLOS ONE, sought to analyze.

What the researchers did

Sandra Martín-Peláez of the University of Granada in Spain and colleagues focused on individuals with metabolic syndrome to look at the connection between cardiovascular risk aspects and depression in people aged 55 to 75.

Metabolic syndrome is condition group that occur together – including hypertension, high blood sugar, excess fat across the waist and high cholesterol – and which increase the danger of heart disease, stroke and kind 2 diabetes. Some researchers suggest that metabolic syndrome may play a role depressed too.

Participants on this study were chosen from wider sample analyzing the impact of the Mediterranean food plan on individuals with obese, obesity and metabolic syndrome. The ongoing randomized trial includes one group on a calorie-restricted Mediterranean food plan and a physical activity program and a second group on an unrestricted Mediterranean food plan without a physical activity program.

More than 6,500 participants were included within the baseline evaluation of the PLOS ONE study, and greater than 4,500 were followed two years later. Scientists used the well-known Framingham Risk Assessment, which was developed by observing healthy people over time to find out the most important risk aspects for heart disease. They classified people as low, medium and high risk of getting a heart attack or dying from heart disease inside ten years.

Participants were asked about depressive symptoms using questionnaires at baseline (after they began following the food plan and physical activity programs) after which two years later.

Surprisingly, there was no significant association between cardiovascular risk and depression at baseline or follow-up. Overall, participants with a higher risk of heart disease weren’t more prone to have or experience depression.

When the authors analyzed the information by gender, they found that originally of the study, women with higher cardiovascular risk were more prone to show symptoms of depression. However, this didn’t apply to men or women in the course of the follow-up period.

On average, depression scores for all participants decreased after two years. Depression scores fell more for those at low cardiovascular risk and within the intervention group (participants following a restricted food plan and physical activity program).

It is difficult to obviously interpret the outcomes of this study. The data was analyzed in several alternative ways, and the outcomes were mixed. For example, the authors analyzed the information by various metabolic syndrome aspects and located that diabetes and specific levels of cholesterol resulted in lower depression scores over the follow-up period.

But we all know from other studies that girls with heart disease suffer from it higher levels depression than men with heart disease. It can be common knowledge that girls experience this in the overall population higher rate of depression than men. Therefore, the finding that there may be an association between heart disease risk and depression in women appears to be consistent with these trends.

Why are depression and heart disease related?

Although we cannot conclude from this study that the danger of heart disease is related to a greater risk of depression, it adds to the already strong evidence suggesting that heart disease and depression are related.

A lot of aspects, behavioral and biological, may explain this relationship. Some biological aspects common risk aspects for depression and heart disease include:

• increased inflammation
• endothelial dysfunction (narrowing of blood vessels in the center)
• altered activity of the autonomic nervous system (the autonomic nervous system controls muscles, including the center)
• impaired platelet function (when platelets are more liable to sticking together and forming clots).

We know that too healthy lifestyle aspectsresembling physical activity, quitting smoking and eating a healthy food plan protect against each heart disease and depression. The opposite can be true – unhealthy lifestyle aspects are related to an increased risk of heart disease and depression.

Unfortunately, it’s harder for people affected by depression to alter these varieties of habits, e.g. quit smoking. Perhaps essentially the most interesting finding of this study is that depression rates were lowered within the group that was encouraged and supported to adopt a healthier lifestyle, including a stricter food plan and increased physical activity.

Although there’s good evidence to suggest that exercise could be very effective within the treatment of depression in individuals with heart disease, the role of food plan as a treatment for depression is less clear. This study provides a promising impetus for further research into food plan and lifestyle as potential treatments for depression in individuals with and in danger for heart disease.