(Becky Upham/ Everyday Health) — Most of us know that healthy habits like a nutritious diet and regular exercise can improve physical health and reduce the risk of chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. A study published September 11 in Nature Mental Health finds these habits have a powerful effect on our minds as well.
Analyzing data from 290,000 participants, researchers discovered that a healthy lifestyle reduced depression risk by 57 percent. “As a society, we often focus on our physical health, but we should spend more time focusing on our mental health and well-being,” says a coauthor of the new study, Barbara Sahakian, DSc, a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Cambridge in England.
Over a nine-year period the researchers followed a total of 287,282 participants from UK Biobank (a large-scale biomedical database and research resource), of whom 12,916 had depression.
During this period, researchers identified seven healthy-lifestyle factors linked with a lower risk of depression. (…)