New research from scientists at the University of South Australia and the University of Exeter in the UK has concluded that depression can occur when overweight people suffer from mental health problems when they have no health problems. Studies have shown that “the causal relationship between obesity and depression is complex and uncertain.” Although there has been a long association between overweight and depression. They published their findings in the International Journal of Epidemiology and further stated that a high body mass index (BMI) can cause partial depression.
To substantiate this, research was conducted by the Biological Bank of the United Kingdom, a database of over 500,000 genetic information.
Over 48,000 of those individuals suffered from depression due to being overweight identified by hospital records and self-reports. They then looked at 73 people with genetically different and high BMIs and identified other diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. These tests concluded that the risk of depression was increased for the above 73 and could be further explained by biological and psychological mechanisms.
Furthermore, the research grouped 14 more people who were genetically modified and had a high BMI but had not been diagnosed with other diseases. They found that all 14 were also partially depressed and could be described by psychological mechanisms.
In this research, the team was able to “do” the psychological aspects of the BMI-depression relationship through physiological relationships. Elina further explains: “These genes are as closely linked to the genes associated with high BMI and diabetes as they are to depression. These symptoms are more common in women. Men who are much thinner than normal or thin women are more likely to suffer from depression.
But it is not an easy task. These data were taken from people born between 1938-1971. The results cannot be said to be the same as those born elsewhere. Also, the information collected is not the “gold standard” because the results are obtained from individual reports only.
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