- DEPRESSION ACCELERATES AGING
Depression not only leads to mental depression but also to deterioration of physical health. Diseases such as heart diseases, diabetes and some types of cancer are more common in patients with untreated depression. Depression also causes premature aging by shortening cell lifespan. Psychiatrist Dr. Hakan Karaş talked about the effects of untreated depression on people.
- Depressed People Get Sick More
The relationship between chronic physical diseases and depression is two-way, that is, people with chronic diseases are prone to depression. Diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases are more common in people with depression. Recent studies in the field of genetics have shown that depression not only causes chronic diseases but also shortens cell lifespan. The results of this research suggest that chronic diseases occurring in depression may also be due to shortening of cell lifespan. At the same time, it is better understood how depression ages people and makes them sick faster.
- Untreated Depression Shortens Life
In recent years, There has been some research showing that persistent and major depression is associated with life-threatening chronic diseases and earlier death. A recent study conducted in the USA revealed that depression can directly shorten cell lifespan and accelerate aging. In this study, it was shown that in people with severe and chronic depression, the structures called "telomeres", which are located at the ends of the chromosomes and serve to protect the chromosomes, are shorter than in people without depression. Telomeres shorten as human cells divide, and after a while, cell division stops as they reach a certain shortness. Since cell division stops, the cell begins to age and cell death occurs. So telomere is like a kind of biological clock for the human cell, and the longer it is, the longer the cell can live. Depression causes telomeres to shorten, causing cell shortens its life. Thus, people with depression age faster due to shortened cell lifespan and are more prone to diseases that come with aging. In other words, it is possible to say that depression is not just because it leads to suicide but directly "it eats away life".
- Protective Against Many Diseases and Aging
In line with this information, the importance of depression treatment is understood more clearly. If depression is not treated; It makes you more prone to diseases such as heart diseases, diabetes, some types of cancer, MS disease and stroke. Treating depression protects people from both these diseases and aging. Because research has also shown that in many people with depression, as soon as treatment is started, telomeres begin to lengthen thanks to the increased activity of the telomerase enzyme.
- No matter how severe it is, treatment is possible
When a person is depressed, it seems like he will never be able to get rid of this gloomy mood because of the hopelessness that is a part of depression. However, no matter how severe the depression is, there is always a treatment option. At this point, searching for the right treatment becomes important. A significant portion of depressed people either do not seek treatment or seek non-psychiatric treatment. Although mild depressions can sometimes improve spontaneously, with social support or by changing lifestyle, there is no proven treatment for depression other than psychiatric treatment methods. Turning to easy and miraculous solution methods to get rid of this distressing mental state as soon as possible increases hopelessness in people and causes them to abandon their search for treatment. This paves the way for depression to become chronic. Depression recovery rates are quite high in patients who cooperate with a psychiatrist. In mild depression, psychotherapy alone is often sufficient.
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