A new study by the University of Connecticut”™s Center on Aging has determined that older adults with depression age faster than their peers.
The study looked at 426 people with late-in-life depression and measured the levels of proteins associated with aging in each person”™s blood. According to the study, cells that get old begin to function less efficiently than a “young” cell, often producing proteins that promote inflammation or other unhealthy conditions.
Those proteins are measured in the blood, and while the study found that while the severity of a person”™s depression seemed unrelated to their level of accelerated aging, it nonetheless impacted their overall cardiovascular health ”“ and study participants with higher levels of aging-associated proteins were more likely to have multiple medical problems including higher than normal blood pressure and cholesterol rates. Tests also found these individuals performed poorly on brain health tests including working memory and other cognitive skills.
“Those two findings open up opportunities for preventive strategies to reduce the disability associated with major depression in older adults, and to prevent their acceleration of biological aging,” said Breno Diniz, a UConn School of Medicine geriatric psychiatrist and author of the study, which was published yesterday in Nature Mental Health.
