2023-12-13 16:00:00
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The more body fat, the greater the likelihood of depression. This is the main conclusion reached by a team of Danish researchers after analyzing a genetic data bank of almost half a million people. The study suggests that It is the psychological effects, and not the biological consequences derived from the accumulation of fat, that lead to a greater probability of falling into depression.
Obesity, defined as an abnormal accumulation or excess of body fat, a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes, certain types of cancer, responsible for high mortality rates and morbidity among the population. Until now, scientists relied on the Body Mass Index (BMI) method to calculate body mass, a technique that is not very precise, as it does not discriminate between body mass derived from fat accumulation and that which responds to muscle mass. This would explain, for example, that many athletes with a high muscle mass index have a BMI above 25.
The study, based on one of the largest biological banks in the world, revealed that the cause-effect relationship between obesity and depression was due to psychological, not biological, factors.
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The Body Mass Index
Instead of BMI, the researchers turned to Mendelian randomization (named after Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics), a technique that uses genetic variants to determine whether an observed association between a risk factor and an outcome is consistent and related to cause-effect. Mendelian randomization takes advantage of the fact that this random distribution occurs naturally during the formation of sex cells (eggs and sperm). In this process, the genetic variants of the parents, including those that lead to increased body fat, are distributed randomly, so some people will have received many of these variants and others less. In the study in question, researchers have used this source of natural and random variation to determine whether people who have received many genetic variants to increase body fat have a higher risk of suffering from depression.
He epidemiological study was based on data from one of the largest biological banks in the world, the UK Biobank, from which information was extracted on the association between genetic variants and body fat of 330,000 people, as well as from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, from which data was extracted on the association between genetic variants and depression based on a study of 135,000 people suffering from this disease and 345,000 control subjects. The results showed that the most overweight people were about 15% more likely to develop depression.
The study found that the most overweight people were around 15% more likely to fall into depression.
Height, a factor in suffering from depression
The main conclusion reached by the researchers is that body fat is a risk factor for suffering from depression, while muscle mass (also included in BMI) did not seem to affect this disease. To reach this conclusion, scientists analyzed the psychological and biological sources of depression. Among the first are factors such as discrimination based on weight, stigmatization by society or dissatisfaction with body image.
Biological causes include the presence of glucocorticoids, adipokines, altered insulin levels, increased leptin hormone, as well as the appearance of some inflammations. The researchers analyzed the location of the fats to determine if the fat in a certain point had a greater incidence in the correlation with the appearance of depression., but they did not find conclusive data. Fat located in the abdomen did not seem to increase the chances of contracting this disease more than that found in another part of the body, quite the contrary, which led to the deduction that the sources of this disease were psychological, derived from the stigmatization of obesity. .
According to scientists, short and obese people would be much more likely to contract depression, although this predisposition would be due to psychological factors, not biological ones.
The researchers cross-referenced data on the height of the study subjects and discovered that, like fat, this was also a risk factor. Obese and short people, according to the authors of the study, would be much more likely to contract depression, although this predisposition would be due to psychological factors, not biological ones. According to the research, these conclusions reveal important new knowledge about the role of anthropometric measurements in the etiology of depression and suggest that reducing body fat could be of great help to health authorities to reduce the incidence of this disease.
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