Depression: It's Not Just in Your Head, It's Also in Your Genes

This study demonstrated shorter telomeres in daughters of moms who had depression and greater hormonal reactivity to stress in these girls. When the girls were followed until age 18, 60 percent of those in the high-risk group developed depression, a condition that was not evident when they were first studied. The telomere was a biomarker, an individual hallmark that a person is at higher risk for an illness -- in this case for depression. We already knew that shortened telomeres were a risk factor for chronic, physical diseases but now the evidence is emerging for its likely role in depression. Should you go out and get your saliva tested? There are labs happy to provide the test. But your decision should depend on whether you have reason to suspect being at risk, like a family history of maternal depression -- which may be all you actually need to know. But information is only valuable if we can do something about it. And we can. We have a growing set of tools to help control our stress responses: these include yoga, yogic breathing, meditation, cognitive training techniques, exercise, diet, and working to have supportive, stable relationships, and home and work environments. People at greater risk for stress-related diseases (mind you, we all are at risk it's just a matter of degree) would be wise to learn and master these techniques early in life, and use them to live a healthier and longer life. We also need to better detect and treat mothers who suffer from depressi...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news