Saturday

Association of the Mediterranean Diet with the incidence of Depression.

Archives of General Psychiatry, prestigious psychiatric journal, has just published the findings of a study coordinated by the University of Navarra which shows that following the Mediterranean Diet reduces the risk of suffering from depression.

The project has used more than 10,000 volunteers who were healthy when the study began. According to Miguel Angel Martinez, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Navarra – each individual is followed for four and half years and it was noted that 480 developed a clinically diagnosed depression. Next, we compared the frequency of occurrence of the disease in relation to their initial following of the Mediterranean Diet, which allowed us to categorize the volunteers assigned into five groups.

When elaborating on each patient it was concluded that following the Mediterranean Diet reduces between 40 to 50 percent the risk of developing the disease. An explanation may be the nutritional elements of the food included in this type of diet.

The project is part of the S.U.N. project (University of Navarra Follow-up), an initiative of the Department of Preventive Medicine of the UNAV beginning in 1999 and is dedicated to research various diseases and health problems. In total, more than 20,000 people have participated in S.U.N. as well as different institutions and universities have collaborated.

Depression is a disease of developed countries. It is estimated that approximately 15 percent of the world’s population will suffer at some point in their lives.

Fore more information:
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/66/10/1090?home