Want To Lower Your Risk For Depression? Study Says Make Sure You're Doing These 7 Things

For this study, researchers wanted to dig into not only which lifestyle factors can help reduce depression risk but also why they may reduce depression risk.

To do so, they examined data from nearly 290,000 people (13,000 of which had depression) over nine years, looking at their lifestyle habits, genetics, brain structure, immune system, and metabolic data.

The data came from the UK Biobank, a large medical database that includes genetic, health, and lifestyle information on participants.

They also examined MRI brain scans from nearly 33,000 participants, as well as looking for blood markers that show immune or metabolic problems.

And in case you're wondering about the compounding effects of multiple healthy lifestyle factors, the research further showed that adhering to all of these factors can decrease your risk of depression by up to 57%.

Even those participants who showed the lowest genetic risk for depression were only 25% less likely to develop it compared to those who were more genetically predisposed, suggesting lifestyle factors could be more important than DNA when it comes to depression.

Even if your genes say you're at a higher risk for depression, this research suggests that picking up healthy lifestyle habits can make a world of a difference.