Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health
Elderly with Depression Tend to Develop Pot Bellies
but Little Fat Elsewhere
Depressive
symptoms are associated with fat gain in the
visceral region: could help explain why depression is often followed by
diabetes or cardiovascular disease
Dec. 1, 2008 - Older adults in their seventies with
symptoms of depression appear more likely to “pot bellies” (abdominal
fat), but not overall fat, over a five-year study period, according to a
report in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry,
one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
About 10 percent to 15 percent of older adults are
known to have symptoms of depression. And, as the researchers note in
their report, "Depression has been associated with the onset of
diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cardiac mortality [death]."
The researchers decided to seek insight into the
underlying mechanisms relating depression to these major disabling and
life-threatening diseases.
Selected for the study were 2,088 adults age 70 to
79 years.
Participants were screened for depression at the
beginning of the study and their overall and abdominal obesity was
recorded then and again after five years by Nicole Vogelzangs, M.Sc., of
VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and
colleagues.
Measures of overall obesity included body mass
index and body fat percentage, while abdominal obesity was assessed
using waist circumference, sagittal diameter (distance between the back
and the highest point of the abdomen) and visceral fat (fat between the
internal organs) measured by computed tomography.
At the beginning of the study, 4 percent of
participants had depression.
After adjusting for sociodemographic and other
characteristics associated with weight changes, depression was
associated with an increase in sagittal diameter and visceral fat over
five years.
"Such an association was not found for an increase
in overall obesity and also appeared to be independent of changes in
overall obesity, suggesting that depressive symptoms are rather
specifically associated with fat gain in the visceral region," the
authors write.
There are several mechanisms by which depression
might increase abdominal fat, they note.
Chronic
stress and depression may activate certain brain areas and lead to
increased levels of the hormone cortisol, which promotes the
accumulation of visceral fat.
Individuals with depression may have unhealthier
lifestyles, including a poor diet, that could interact with other
physiological factors to produce an increase in abdominal obesity.
"Our longitudinal results suggest that clinically
relevant depressive symptoms give rise to an increase in abdominal
obesity, in particular visceral fat, which seems to be stronger than and
independent of overall obesity," the authors conclude.
"This could also help explain why depression is
often followed by diabetes or cardiovascular disease. Future research
should further disentangle these mechanisms because this will yield
important information for prevention or treatment of depression-related
health consequences."
An excess of visceral fat leads to the "pot belly"
or "beer belly" effect, in which the abdomen protrudes excessively. This
body type is also known as "apple" shaped, as opposed to "pear" shape,
in which fat is deposited on the hips and buttocks. Visceral fat
accumulation is associated with insulin resistance, glucose intolerance,
dyslipidemia, hypertension, and coronary artery disease.
Editor's Note: This study was supported by
contracts from the National Institute on Aging, a travel grant from the
Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands and in part by the Intramural
Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, NIA. Data
analyses were supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and
Blood Institute.
>>
More about visceral fat at Wikipedia
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