*Globe & Mail* 18 July 2008 includes an article: “Heart disease stalks
depressed women” by David Hutton.

Here are some excerpts:

[begin excerpts]

A new Canadian study shows that middle-aged women face far greater risks
of heart disease than men as a result of depression.

“We are learning that depression knows very little about political
correctness,” said Roger McIntyre, head of the Mood Disorders
Psychopharmacology Unit at Toronto’s University Health Network.

This study shows for the first time that depression affects women in
ways that are much more significant and much more physically severe than
in men, he said.

The study, published in Health Reports, a Statistics Canada publication,
used data from a national sample of 4,948 men and women aged 40 or older
who were followed for 12 years starting in 1994-1995. The goal was to
determine whether depression was linked with a higher risk of a heart
disease. It was the first time the interplay between depression and
heart disease among Canadians had been studied at a national level.

“Men can still get heart disease if they suffer from depression,” said
Heather Gilmour, an analyst with Statistics Canada and the lead
researcher on the study. “But in this study it was far less likely to
happen than in women.”

The study found that of the people surveyed, 19 per cent of men and 15
per cent of women had developed or died from heart disease by 2006-2007.

But women who experienced depression were at a 70-per-cent greater risk
of developing heart disease than women without depression – a large
enough percentage to show a causal connection. In contrast, depressed
men showed no greater risk of developing heart disease than other men.

The correlation between heart disease and depression has been well
documented in past studies.

<snip>

Dr. McIntyre said depression also pushes up the levels of stress
hormones such as cortisol. Elevated cortisol levels can impair insulin
sensitivity in the body and encourage belly fat, a risk factor for heart
disease that’s more likely to affect women’s health, he said.

“The actual illness itself is often much more severe in women, which
distinguishes them from men and puts them at higher risk of getting
cardiovascular disease,” he said.

[end excerpts]

The complete article is online at:
<http://tinyurl.com/5m6bgm>.