Study: Depression may have physical, as well as psychological, consequences.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—For a while now, scientists have been building up evidence that depression and depressive symptoms can lead to heart disease and obesity. A new study, published in the most recent issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, finds that the link may create visceral fat, a type of abdominal fat that builds up around abdominal organs and isn’t visible to the eye.

“There is something physiological related to depressive symptoms that contributes to the accumulation of fat,” says study author Susan Everson-Rose, PhD, MPH, associate professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Her study wasn’t able to pinpoint the reason why depression leads to higher percentages of visceral fat, but “it’s worth knowing that [depression] is not just a mood disorder and that it can increase that risk [of fat gain].”

THE DETAILS: Researchers recruited 409 women in various stages of menopause who didn’t have any preexisting medical conditions. Once a year for 3 years, the women completed a survey to measure their depressive symptoms and underwent CT scans and X-rays to measure their percentages of visceral fat. Women with survey scores higher than 16 (generally representative of clinical depression symptoms) had nearly 25 percent more visceral fat than women with lower survey scores. For each one-point increase in the depression-survey scores, women tended to have a 1.03 square centimeter increase in visceral fat. (The researchers didn’t find the same results for subcutaneous fat, the kind of fat you actually can see building up around your midsection.)

WHAT IT MEANS: If depression tends to be accompanied by an increase in this hidden fat in some people, treating both symptoms may be an important strategy for lowering cardiovascular disease. While detecting visceral fat can be difficult without expensive imaging tests (like CT scans or MRIs), reducing visceral fat can be accomplished through using standard weight loss tactics.

Because visceral fat is hard to see and diagnose, all women can benefit from preventing its increase as they age. Try these simple tips:

• Treat depression to save your heart. This study wasn’t able to determine whether depression caused fat buildup or if fat buildup caused depression, but it suggests that treating your depression may be healthy for your heart. A few signs that you might be suffering from depression include losing interest in daily activities, feeling hopeless, crying for no reason, having problems sleeping, having difficulty making decisions, becoming annoyed easily, and having unexplained aches and pains. If these symptoms sound familiar, seek help. Start by talking to your physician.

• Eat right and exercise to lose all kinds of fat. “When you eat right and lose weight, you lose fat from all over,” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, RD, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. She recommends combining aerobic exercises, like walking or swimming, with weight-bearing exercises to battle visceral fat. “As you build muscle, you become more efficient at burning calories,” she explains. Taub-Dix recommends that you replace unhealthy saturated fats with good fats from fish, almonds, walnuts, and olive and canola oils, and that you bulk up on fruits and vegetables.

• Don’t stress out. The study authors suggest that one possible link between depression and visceral fat may be that depression increases the body’s secretion of cortisol, a stress hormone. Both human and animal studies have linked higher levels of cortisol to higher deposits of visceral fat. You can decrease stress in your life in many ways, whether taking a walk at lunch or simply meditating. Exercise, in addition to burning fat, also counteracts cortisol levels and boosts mood-lifting endorphins, so you can lose weight, cut stress, and ward off depression—all in 30-minute sweat sessions!

You can also try treating your depression symptoms with natural home remedies.