Depression speeds up the aging process of cells in the human body

The fact that depression is not good, everyone knowsexceptions. But only now, scientists have been able to scientifically prove the connection of this emotional state of a person with the fact that his cells begin to age several times faster than usual. It turns out that depression is harmful not only for the psyche, but also for the human body.

Scientists have long drawn a parallel betweendepressive disorders of people and their diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Surprisingly, new studies have shown that depression also accelerates the aging process at the cellular level.

Researchers from the Netherlands to tracethe effect of depression on the human body, the length of the terminal sections of chromosomes, the so-called telomeres, was constantly measured. With each cycle of cell division in our body, that is, during the aging of the body, telomeres inevitably become shorter. This happens because DNA polymerase, which is responsible for DNA replication, is not able to restore this very DNA from its very end. The telomere length can be used to determine the age of the cell with high accuracy. For example, the telomeres of older people and animals are shorter than the telomeres of children or adolescents.

The research involved more than 2000people divided into three groups. The first group included those who were previously diagnosed with depressive disorder, but they coped with this condition. The second group is people who are currently struggling with depression. The third group is people who have never suffered from depression.

Even after important factors have been consideredlike bad habits, eating junk food and being overweight, people with depression showed the shortest telomere length. In other words, depression ages the body much faster than cigarettes, drinking alcohol or eating unhealthy fatty foods daily.

Speaking in the language of numbers, the length of the telomeresa person suffering from a depressive disorder is equal to 5460 kb (kilobases are units of telomere length), and the length of a healthy person’s telomeres is on average 5540 kb. During the year, telomeres become shorter by an average of 14-20 kb. You can easily find that depression can age a person on average for four years or more if the condition lasts. But four years is quite a long time, if you think carefully.

The results of the study will help modernmedicine better understand the process of depressive disorder and its effect on the physical condition of patients. But, as you well understand, it’s best to be less upset and keep depression away from a cannon shot.

Based on theverge.com