Depression Combined with Blood Pressure
According to recent studies, inflammation, lipid metabolism, and body composition indicators are crucial in determining whether or not depressed middle-aged persons may have mental deterioration.
The study, published in Psychoneuroendocrinology, discovered that a history of depression combined with allostatic load predicts a decline in cognitive performance. Allostatic load is a way to quantify the cumulative harm brought on by long-term stress. It consists of factors including high blood pressure and chronic inflammation.
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle requires managing the allostatic load on the body. Numerous investigations have found a link between lower mental function and significant allostatic stress. However, since depression was not examined in the earlier research, there were still unsolved issues about the nature of allostatic stress and depression’s combined impact on cognition.
The researchers estimated allostatic stress in 815 subjects using 24 biomarkers extracted from blood, urine, body measurements, and electrocardiography. The study revealed that allostatic stress and depression predicted mental impairment together but not independently. In other words, a significant allostatic load was linked to cognitive deterioration in persons with depression but not in participants without depression. Out of all the factors of allostatic load, the researchers found inflammation paired with depression to be the main culprit of accelerating mental decline.
