An unhealthy lifestyle may lead to depression! A study of 24,000 residents in Tianjin

Some people say that being born as a human being is not about pursuing happiness, but about how to reduce pain. No matter what the cause of the pain is, depression will always haunt you.

According to the 2017 Global Burden of Disease data, depression has become a major disease among Chinese people, accounting for 1/5 of the total cases worldwide. Depression is associated with a variety of diseases, and what's worse is that studies have shown that even some depression can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Recently, a study conducted by Zhang Qing, Liu Li and others from Tianjin Medical University General Hospital concluded that lifestyle is closely related to depressive symptoms, and that certain lifestyle interventions are a good way to treat depression.

This study included 24,000 residents from the Tianjin Chronic Low-Grade Inflammation and Health Cohort, in which a Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) score ≥45 was defined as having depressive symptoms.

The study showed that 16.59% of them had symptoms of depression.

Compared with people with and without depressive symptoms, depressed people had higher neutrophil and lymphocyte counts, weighed less, ate less, and were less active.

In terms of diet, people with depressive symptoms eat less vegetarian food, more meat, and more sweets and fruits. In addition, people with depressive symptoms are more likely to smoke, be female, be single, have little knowledge, come from poor families, and spend more than 5 hours outdoors.

Further research found that people who are married, like to interact with relatives and friends, are educated, and have a high monthly income from home have a lower risk of developing depressive symptoms.

Smoking, eating animal foods, sweets and fruits, sleeping time >7.6 h/d, and outdoor activities for 3-5 h/d and >5 h/d will increase the risk of depressive symptoms.

According to the researchers, depression is an inflammatory disease in which peripheral immune activation leads to depression-related behaviors as well as neuroendocrine and neurological changes by releasing proinflammatory cytokines.

Some scholars have speculated that pro-inflammatory diets or nutrients may increase the risk of depression.

Take-out is very popular currently, and baked goods, milk tea, desserts, and red meat are all pro-inflammatory foods.

In addition, researchers pointed out that quitting smoking and increasing exercise are both ways to reduce depression. Some studies have shown that exercise can increase the utilization of neurotransmitters, thereby helping to improve patients' mood.

It is worth noting that current research shows that daily sunshine time of 3-5 h or >5 h/d increases the risk of depressive symptoms. The researchers speculate that this suggests that too much sunshine time may also be a risk factor for depressive symptoms.

Improving the mental health of the people is also an issue that the government has always paid attention to. Among them, promoting mental health has been included in the "Healthy China Action (2019-2030)".

However, people currently do not know enough about depression, rarely seek help, and there is a serious shortage of mental health assistants. How to reduce the incidence of depression in the population is still an urgent problem to be solved.

source:

[1] Ren X, et al. Burden of depression in China, 1990-2017: Findings from the global burden of disease study 2017. J Affect Disord, 2020, 268: 95-101.

[2] Liu Li, Zhang Qing, Gao Ying, et al. Study on the association between lifestyle and depressive symptoms: TCLSIH study[J]. Chinese Journal of Epidemiology, 2020, 41(10): 1674-1680.

[3] Healthy China Action Promotion Committee. Healthy China Action (2019-2030): Overall requirements, major actions and main indicators. Chinese Journal of Circulation, 2019, 34: 846-858. DOI:10.3969/j.issn.1000-3614.2019.09.003

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