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Artur Gabrysiak/Fotolia People suffering from major depression are likely to have a dysfunctional fight-or-flight stress response, one risk factor in developing heart or cardiovascular disease.
Nov 28, 2011
It’s a short jump from depression to stress to heart disease: study
by Thandi FletcherDepressed patients may be at a higher risk of heart disease, a new Canadian study suggests.
The Concordia University-led study, the first of its kind, found people suffering from major depression are likely to have a dysfunctional fight-or-flight stress response, one risk factor in developing heart or cardiovascular disease.
“We believe that the depression is causing this change in the fight-or-flight response, and that ultimately leads to the development of heart disease,” said Simon Bacon, lead author of the study and an exercise science professor at Montreal’s Concordia University.
The researchers tested 886 patients, on average about 60 years old, from 2005 to 2008. About five per cent of the patients were diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
The patients underwent exercise stress tests to measure their fight-or-flight response — the system designed to prepare the body for looming threat.
“The fight-or-flight pathway influences virtually every organ in the body,” said Bacon. “It’s a pathway that was designed from the beginning of our existence to be adaptive . . . if we’re under attack, if we need to run away, or defend ourselves against our attacker.”
After the test, the patients had their heart rate and blood pressure recorded one minute and five minutes after exercising. Heart rate recovery after exercise is one way of measuring the fight-or-flight stress response, said Bacon.
The researchers found the depressed patients had a slower heart-rate recovery than non-depressed patients at one minute after the stress test, indicating a problem with their stress response.
The dysfunctional stress response can contribute to an increased risk of heart disease, said Bacon.
Heart disease is an umbrella term used to describe conditions affecting the heart as well as cardiovascular diseases affecting the blood vessels and circulatory system, like coronary artery disease and hypertension.
Heart disease and stroke are two of the three leading causes of death in Canada, according to 2008 figures from Statistics Canada.
It’s important to note that the findings don’t mean all depressed patients will necessarily develop heart disease, said Bacon.
“It’s not pre-ordained,” he said.
But in combination with other risk factors — like high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels, smoking, a poor diet high in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, diabetes, or genetic risk factors— depressed patients could have a higher heart disease risk.
The study is the first to look at the role of depression in a dysfunctional fight-or-flight response, said Bacon.
Other studies suggested that the heart problems of depressed patients may have been the result of poor health habits, but Bacon said the study shows there are more pieces to the puzzle.
“It’s not solely down to poor health behaviour . . . there is another physiological pathway, both of which are important,” said Bacon. “But one of the things we know from other studies is that the more of these risk factors you have, the worse off you are.”
The next logical step in the research, Bacon said, is to find answers to the important question of how health-care providers can help treat depressed patients at risk of developing heart disease.
“If we help them treat their depression, will we see an improvement in their physiology? Or is there a way we can target their physiology as well?” he asked. “That’s what we’re looking at in the future: Helping make people better.”
For now, Bacon said the take-home message for health-care providers is to not only focus on treating the mental disorder of patients with depression, but to also look at their cardiovascular health.
The study, a collaborative project between researchers from Concordia University, McGill University and the Montreal Heart Institute, was published in the November issue of the international science journal Psychophysiology.
Source:
Depression can elevate risk of heart disease: study | News | National Post
Link: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/28/its-a-short-jump-from-depression-to-stress-to-heart-disease-study/
This article is very informative regarding heart diseases. As we learned from here stress is one of the major reason behind heart attack.So always trying to be keep happy & avoid stress.
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