Diabetes from Depression: Older adults face dual risk
By Brian Vastag
Adults 65 and older who report depressive symptoms are 50 to 60 percent more likely to develop diabetes than are their peers, according to a new study.
The study is the first to show that depression alone, apart from lifestyle factors such as poor diet and lack of exercise, can trigger type 2 diabetes in older adults, reports Mercedes Carnethon of the Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago.
“This means doctors need to take depressive symptoms in older adults very seriously,” she says. Earlier research had shown the connection in younger adults.