Research Suggests, Depression Might Fasten Brain Aging

According to a new research, thinking skills and memory naturally slow down with age but nowadays scientists are looking inside the human brain to see whether depression is making that worse, and guess what? Some actual clues to be worried have been found out! Certain cognitive problems have always had something to do with depression, and most specifically a risk factor for the Alzheimer’s development, depression in old age plays a crucial role. Still it is not clear that how cognition is harmed due to depression. By firing messages across connections, brain cells can communicate and the process is known as synapses.

Usually, stronger and more synapses are associated with good cognition. Those junctions are ultimately dead or shrink off with cognitive impairment. Until now, as per the reports, scientists were only able to count the synapses inside the human brain tissue after death. Recently, a technique was discovered by the scientists of Yale University, they performed scanning the brains of alive people and found out that, depressed patients consumed the lesser density of synapses as compare to the healthy people of the same age group.  The lesser is the density, the more severe depression indicators.

Irina Esterlis, neuroscientists at Yale University said that, the normal aging is might getting accelerated by depression. Her researches are not that big, to prove if decline is really being worsened by depression. Currently, a larger study is in the making by Esterlis. It will be a delicate study. According to her, there is no certain medication available, which will target the damage of the synapses. But as per other brain experts, the early finding might act as a reminder, as treating depression is of great importance. So that people will not suffer so many years of their life. There is a huge hit on the human brain, at any age, with depression.