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April 7, 2008, 5:36 pm
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People with depression are more likely to later develop Alzheimer's disease, according to two studies published on Monday, and one team said that chronic stress may damage their brains.

"What we think it suggests is that depression truly is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, and not simply a sign that the disease is developing," Dr. Robert Wilson, a neuropsychologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago who led one study, said in a telephone interview.

Some researchers have assumed that Alzheimer's causes depression, so Wilson's team tracked 917 retired Catholic priests and nuns, 190 of whom developed Alzheimer's disease. Those with more symptoms of depression at the beginning of the study were more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

But Wilson's group did not find a sudden onset or worsening of depression in the few years before symptoms of the brain disease took hold.

Source

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=4605479&page=1

The importance of mental balance and the ability to relieve stress, inho, will continue to prove imperative to a healthy life in further studies.

I believe there is great power in positive thinking. If you are being negative all the time in your words and actions then you are essentially telling your mind and body to fulfill the request of your negative thoughts.

I agree. Doctors and researchers have conducted studies and found that a person who is positive and believes they will pull through their illness has a better shot at survival than someone who is negative or downtrodden.

And just what are people supposed to do with this kind of study?

If you're a depressed person, either with very definite reasons to be depressed or even if you are simply more introspective than others and so more depressed, what are you supposed to do? Just go get cheerful?

Maybe we should go to doctor and get a happy pill or something? Get rid of family members who are ill and need our help? Forget the bills that are building up and just go dancing? Drink more? Take recreational drugs?

Since I am a more depressed person than others, I'd really like to have an idea on how to use this information just to stop Alzheimer's. Depressed people are also said to live shorter lives because other diseases get us too.

Thanks. May I just say that this article just made me a bit more depressed!

I guess it's not that bad. Like the old joke goes -- with Alzheimer's we won't remember why we're depressed. Will that help us then?

I read an excellent article detailing why depression has grown leaps and bounds over the latest years, it is definitely worth taking a look at:

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/PTO-19970501-000029.html

Skates, depression can often be a sign of a chemical imbalance, or a is a learned disposition. In no way should it be considered a life sentence, however. One should not be too wary about seeing their physician, or a recommended psychologist, for help...it is now talked about more as its relationship to good general health is more widely acknowledged. Do you have to be a Pollyanna or act cheerful when you're not? Hell, no. Please just keep an open mind.

I didn't know that depression has been linked to Alzheimer's disease, but I know when a person is depressed their immune system generally gets bad leaving them susceptible to all kinds of other diseases.

Depression runs in my family and so does Alzheimer's. Both of my parents died with it. The best thing I can do is to exercise both my body and my mind in an effort to ward off both diseases.