Still a good reason to watch his weight ..

Still a good reason to watch his weight ..

It is well known, overweight and obesity are the cause of many health concerns: from diabetes to hypertension, through cardiovascular diseases and circulatory disorders, we can not count their harmful effects on the body ... but also in the head. For the first time, a team of researchers has succeeded in proving that there is indeed a causal link between overweight and depression.

According to this study, conducted jointly by the University of Exeter in the UK and the University of South Australia, a high body mass index (BMI) increases the risk of suffering from depression. Discovery ? It is the psychological impact of overweight that causes depression and not the other way around.

Women more affected
To reach this conclusion, the team compared the medical records of more than 48,000 people with depression in the UK with those of 290,000. All members of the cohort were 37 to 73 years old. As a result, genes associated with a higher BMI are more likely to cause depression, with or without associated health problems. A more pronounced phenomenon in women than in men. A person is considered to be overweight from a BMI equal to or greater than 25, and obese from 30 (as a reminder, BMI is calculated by dividing weight by height squared).

"We have known for a long time that there is a link between the two diseases, but not whether it was obesity that caused depression or vice versa," says study director Jess Tyrrell. Our genetic analysis concludes that the psychological impact of obesity is likely to cause depression. This is important to help refine treatments to cure and prevent this mental illness. "



In France, about 15% of the population is affected by obesity. As for depression, it is estimated that nearly one in five people have suffered or will suffer during their lifetime.