Depression And Anxiety Are As Harmful As Smoking Is For Your Health

It¡¯s not just your mental faculties that are affected by ongoing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Your entire body along with your mind is impacted.

Both depression and anxiety significantly increase the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, arthritis, which is comparable to smoking and obesity.

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A recent study published in the journal Health Psychology, revealed that anxiety and depression can increase your risk of developing heart disease. The study also states that conditions, such as depression and anxiety need to be considered for its effect on mental health as much risk factors, such as smoking and obesity.

Anxiety and depression also lead to a greater chance of you suffering from high blood pressure and arthritis.

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"These increased odds are similar to those of participants who are smokers or are obese," said Aoife O'Donovan from UCSF, as reported by PTI.

"However, for arthritis, high anxiety and depression seem to confer higher risks than smoking and obesity," O'Donovan said.

People suffering from heightened levels of anxiety and depression were at a 65% increased risk of developing a heart condition by 65%, by 64% for a stroke, by 50% for blood pressure and by 87% for arthritis.

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Fortunately, the researchers did find that high levels of depression and anxiety were not associated with cancer incidence. "Our findings are in line with a lot of other studies showing that psychological distress is not a strong predictor of many types of cancer," O'Donovan said.

"On top of highlighting that mental health matters for a whole host of medical illnesses, it is important that we promote these null findings. We need to stop attributing cancer diagnoses to histories of stress, depression and anxiety," O'Donovan said.

Anxiety, stress and depression even heightened symptoms of a headache, an upset stomach, back pain and a shortage of breath.

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"Anxiety and depression symptoms are strongly linked to poor physical health, yet these conditions continue to receive limited attention in primary care settings, compared to smoking and obesity," said Andrea Niles from UCSF.

"To our knowledge, this is the first study that directly compared anxiety and depression to obesity and smoking as prospective risk factors for disease onset in long-term studies," Niles said.