Depresses enlarges the women

Overweight, blows of blues, obesity, depression… Black thoughts and superfluous kilos invade our modern societies. A French study comes today to specify the bonds between these two plagues. And according to the results, depresses it enlarges the women… but not the men!

In Sao Paulo, the world congress on obesity brings together the world specialists in this disease. And this year, the French studies are with the honor in particular thanks to “Fleurbaix Laventie Ville health”, a study of truly exceptional public health.
A laboratory with open sky

Depress and taken poids since 10 years, the inhabitants of two cities of the North of France – Fleurbaix and Laventie – take part in a study of public health associating doctors, researchers, elected officials and teachers. In this area particularly touched by the overweight and obesity, they are on the whole 6.666 inhabitants who take part in this project cut out in three stages:

* To evaluate nutritional information in the schools in the modification of the dietary habits of the children but also of their family (1992-1997);
*
To include/understand the determinants of the catch of weight (1998-2002);
* To study the impact of environmental interventions in order to validate steps of prevention and assumption of responsibility of obesity on the level of the population (2002-2006).

Within the framework of “Fleurbaix Laventie City Health II”, the analysis of all the factors influencing the catch of weight included the food behaviors, the physical-activity, the biological, hormonal and genetic factors, at the individual and family level. Less obvious factors also be screened among which depression.
The women have some large on the heart… and the hips

Which are the bonds enters depresses and obesity? Many studies are leaning on the subject without obtaining really conclusive results. At most, it was noted that the people who suffer from obesity are often depressed. But which egg or hen preceded the other? Their black thoughts can be the cause or the consequence of their obesity. To nibble without counting can constitute an answer alleviating vis-a-vis an anxiety, one depresses or a stress.

See also our files:     Consequences of the depression
Obesity: risk factors
Men, women and weight
To lose, it is in the head!
Eat anti-depresses!
To drive out depresses it
Depresses enlarges the women

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From the very many data of the study “Fleurbaix Laventie Health City”, the relations between overweight, obesity and depression were examinées1. The overweight or obesity was evaluated in terms of and Index waist measurement of Body Mass (IMC = Poids/Taille2).

243 old men and 291 women from 30 to 67 years answered a questionnaire allowing to calculate a score of depression. True scale of the déprime2, this score can go from 0 (not depressed a whole) to 60 (extremely depressed). According to this test, the victims of a true depression diagnosed by a doctor have a score equal to or higher than 17 for the men and 23 for the women.

Results: A quarter of the women in overweights or obese is depressed against only 14% of the women of standard weight. In addition, the score of depression increases according to the IMC and by the waist measurement. At the men, on the contrary, the people in overweights or obese are not depressed than the others: 16% against 19% and the waist measurement is correlated negatively with the score of depression.
Man-women unequal on the balance

For better including/understanding this inequality man-women, the researchers studied other characteristics of the participants having the highest scores of depression. Thus several assumptions are done day:

* The depressed men have tendency to smoking more. In addition to properties cut-hunger, nicotine increases the basic energy expenditure of the organization. These “bad habits” could thus explain their catch of less weight, even if they have a less high level of studies. Let us recall that generally, the educational level seems important3: the people having continued higher learning beyond the third cycle have three times less risk to have an obesity, compared to those which do not have level BEPC;
* The obese women suffer psychologically more of the consequences from excess of weight and have thus more reasons to be depressed. They have a lower level of study overall. The researchers also specify that the depression is found particularly among women whose obesity is associated with other diseases or who encounter the most difficulty in the life because of a lower social status.

These results thus seem to support the assumption of the man “jovial fellow”, jovial and wrapped. To believe that the kilos in excess make the men more optimistic? And well, this image was recently put at evil by a study américaine4. Various indicators of the mental health were studied (joy, perceived mental health, etc) on 1.739 reprocessed county of Alameda. Results: the most wrapped are not most optimistic.