Depression Leads To Diabetes Or Diabetes Leads To Depression?

Depressiondefine leads to type 2 diabetesdefine and type 2 diabetes itself leads to depression, according to a study published on Tuesday which says that depression and type 2 diabetes go hand in hand.

Nearly 21 million people in US alone have diabetes. The findings of the study suggest that both patient and doctor must be aware of the dual risks.

Assistant clinical professor of medicine, Dr. Stuart Weiss, at New York University School of Medicine said, "Doctors should have their sensitivity increased toward picking up on the potential for more of their diabetes patients and more of their depressiondefine patients having susceptibility to the other disorder."

Lead author of the study, Dr. Sherita Hill Golden of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore revealed that there is a relationship between type 2 diabetesdefine and depression. If a person has type 2 diabetes, the most common of diabetes linked to lack of exercise, smoking and obesity, then, he is at higher risk of developing depression, (which has been established by now) but what we didn’t know was that depression can also lead to diabetes – making it bit like a two way highway.

Dr. Golden and colleagues applied measures of fasting blood glucose and depressive symptoms to test whether increased depressive symptoms predicted incident type 2 diabetes and also whether participants with type 2 diabetes at the starting of the study were more likely to develop elevated symptoms of depression than subjects without diabetes.

The team looked at the data of some 5,000 men and women aged 45 to 84 years and followed them over a three-year period.

The study, published in the latest Journal of the American Medical Association found that patients who were being treated for type 2 diabetes had a 42 percent higher risk of developing symptoms of depression, including feelings of hopelessness, poor sleep and loss of appetite.

"They were at about a 42 percent increased risk of developing type-two diabetes over follow-ups of three years," Dr. Sherita said.

The team also found that participants who already had type 2 diabetes at the beginning of the study and were being treated for the same had a 52 percent higher risk of developing symptoms of depression.

"We hypothesize that some of this may be related to the increased burden of monitoring in diabetes as associated with being on medical therapy," Dr. Golden said.

Golden added that people who suffer from depression develop behaviors that cause diabetes or make it worse, including not exercising, smoking or overeating. She said, researchers need to better understand how the diseases relate to each other to improve.

Type 2 diabetes is sometimes also known as lifestyle diabetes as it is more common in individuals who eat unhealthy diet, lead a sedentary lifestyle, smoke cigarette and are obese. It affects nearly 85 to 90% of all people with diabetes.

Earlier this disease used to affect middle aged people but now younger people are also being diagnosed in greater numbers, as rates of overweight and obesity increase. The causes of type 2 diabetes are known and in some cases it can be prevented; however there is no cure for type 2 diabetes.

If you want to reduce your risk, maintain an ideal weight with a low fat diet and exercise regularly.

Another latest study on diabetes revealed that diabetics are more prone to hearing loss than other people. Hearing loss is almost twice as common among diabetic adults than their healthy counterparts.