Depression leads to internal fat in 70-somethings

"Older people who are depressed are much more likely to develop a dangerous type of internal body fat - the kind that can lead to diabetes and heart disease - than people who are not depressed, a disturbing new study found. The connection goes beyond obesity and suggests some biological link between a person's mental state and fat that collects around the internal organs, scientists said.'"For the depressed public, it should be another reason to take one's symptoms seriously and look for treatment,' said study co-author Stephen Kritchevsky, director of the Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. People with depression were twice as likely as others to gain visceral fat - the kind that surrounds internal organs and often shows up as belly fat. It raises the risk for heart disease and diabetes. The research is published in Archives of General Psychiatry"