The fact that depressed little good, they know all without exception. But only now scientists managed 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 between depressive disorders of people and their diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Surprisingly, new research has shown that depression also accelerates the aging process at the cellular level.
Researchers from the Netherlands, to trace the effect of depression on the human body, constantly measured the length of the end sections of chromosomes, the so-called telomeres. 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 length of the cells can be determined by the length of telomeres with high accuracy. For example, telomeres of elderly people and animals are shorter than telomeres of children or teenagers.
The study involved more than 2,000 people, 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 such as unhealthy habits, eating unhealthy food and being overweight were taken into account, 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 terms of numbers, the length of the telomeres of a person suffering from depressive disorder is equal to 5460 kb (kilobases are units of measure for the length of telomeres), and the length of telomeres of a healthy person is on average equal to 5,540 kb. Over the year, telomeres become shorter on average by 14–20 kb. You can easily calculate that depression can age a person for an average of four years or more if the condition is prolonged. But four years is quite a long time, if you think carefully.
The results of the study will help modern medicine to better understand the process of depressive disorder and its effect on the physical condition of patients. But, as you perfectly understand, it is best to be less upset and not to allow the depression to itself a distance of a cannon shot.
Based on theverge.com
The article is based on materials .
Comments
Post a Comment