Depression 'makes us biologically older'

[bananas]

Source: BBC

Depression can make us physically older by speeding up the ageing process in our cells, according to a study.

Lab tests showed cells looked biologically older in people who were severely depressed or who had been in the past.

These visible differences in a measure of cell ageing called telomere length couldn't be explained by other factors, such as whether a person smoked.

The findings, in more than 2,000 people, appear in Molecular Psychiatry.

Experts already know that people with major depression are at increased risk of age-related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, obesity and heart disease.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24897247

[randome]

1. That sounds intuitively correct to me.

Unfortunately, there are too many people who are depressed to some extent and don't realize it.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[bananas]

2. On the other hand, "Health kick 'reverses cell ageing'"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24111357

Health kick 'reverses cell ageing'

16 September 2013
By Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

Going on a health kick reverses ageing at the cellular level, researchers say.

The University of California team says it has found the first evidence a strict regime of exercise, diet and meditation can have such an effect.

<snip>

The researchers saw visible cellular changes in the group of 10 men who switched to a vegetarian diet and stuck to a recommended timetable of exercise and stress-busting meditation and yoga.

<snip>

Among the 10 men with low-risk prostate cancer who made comprehensive lifestyle changes, telomere length increased significantly by an average of 10%.

In comparison, telomere length decreased by an average of 3% in the remaining 25 men who were not asked to make any lifestyle changes.

<snip>

[randome]

3. Wow. I didn't know about this.

We're getting closer to figuring this shit out every day. As I am fond of saying...
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[Ace Acme]

5. Yeah, these kids today are likely to live to be 200 years old

with bodies that look like they're 35.

That's why they look at us gray farts like we're another species.

I spent a lot of years being depressed. I gave that up (despair of despair), and now I'm just real, real angry.

[randome]

7. You work with what you got, right?

Directing that anger to something useful is a good way to keep it from causing problems.

'Despair of despair'. I get you.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[BlancheSplanchnik]

4. that's depressing.

sucks.

depression, PTSD, ADD: BPD mother...abuse--infancy and onward, childhood chronic illness, hospitalizations, tests, major surgeries, bullying.....shit. I think I may be fucked.

I hope all the work on it I do helps my telomeres!

[sulphurdunn]

8. Sounds pretty normal to me.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

10. are you

One of us! One of us! One of us! ??

[sulphurdunn]

12. I am,

I am, I am, I am...Maybe.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

13. greetings fellow survivor!

[Blue_Tires]

6. Yeah, I could easily attest to that....

[dipsydoodle]

9. So cheer up.

.

[MillennialDem]

11. Been depressed for a long time and still look a very young 33 (mistaken for a college student)

[oberliner]

14. Yeah - I think this is BS

Like a lot of these "findings".

[BuddhaGirl]

15. very interesting about "telomeres"

There has been scientific research that has shown that the amino acid L-Carnosine reduces telomere damage and the shortening rate.

[Uncle Joe]

16. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, bananas.