Depression has its fallout on the physic of the depressed as signified in a series of researches. An Archive of Internal Medicine study found that women suffering from depression are more prone to bone loss from osteoporosis compared with women who are not clinically depressed.
It is known that women are more prone to both depression and osteoporosis than men, with half of all women compared with only one in five men suffering from bone loss after the age of 50. Blood and urine samples revealed that depressed women had overactive immune system that produces higher level of chemicals that promote inflammation. A protein called IL-6 is chiefly responsible for triggering bone loss.
The researchers found 17% had thinner bones in the femoral neck compared with only 2% of women who were not depressed. In the lumber spine area of the body, 20% of depressed women had low bone mass compared with only 9% of non-depressed women.
However, a question remains to be answered that whether the high rate of osteoporosis in depressed women can be attributed to their mental condition or it is the side effect of anti-depressant drugs taken by the women who participated in the study. The US study is silent on this issue.
