Posted by Larry Hoover on November 19, 2002, at 13:56:03
In reply to Re: The truth about the french paradox? » Larry Hoover, posted by bluedog on November 19, 2002, at 11:27:47
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> > Unfortunately, the French have a higher incidence of depression (4.5%, similar to Germany, Canada, and New Zealand) than even the U.S. (3%).
> >
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> Larry
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> Do citizens in the US really have lower rates of depression than the French and the other countries you mentioned? Or do they have lower REPORTED rates of depression?A-hah! You are *thinking* when you read a reported factoid. Indeed, that is one of the limitations of the data I presented. If you go to www.thelancet.com, and input omega-3 as a search term (you will need to register), you'll find a paper relating incidence of depression to fish consumption. There's a neat little graph of data from different countries. Japan's incidence is less than 0.2%.
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> Also, how do you explain the following quote?
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> "In fact, 30 years of research have shown that depression is a good PREDICTOR of heart disease AND poor survival after a heart attack (depression as a REACTION to heart disease was separated from the analysis)"One word: homocysteine. Oxidative stress (a result of any kind of stress) causes homocysteine to build up in the blood. Do a search on TMG, in this group, and you'll come up with some information I provided earlier.
> I lifted this quote from the following article
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> http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0022.htm.
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> Based on the the depression figures you quoted, the French rates of depression should predict a higher rate of heart disease in France than in the US. Of course we know that the opposite is the case.
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> Another example of the French Paradox in action!!Absolutely. And, the article which started this thread presents the best hypothesis I've yet heard for the French paradox.
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> By the way, based on the above linked article and by way of reverse logic, given the rates of depression you quoted, is it the case that US citizens eat quite a bit more fish than citizens in France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand?
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> The mind boggles!!... and the plot Thickens!!!Go to that Lancet article, and you can see for yourself. The plots are fish consumption v. incidence of depression.
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:128270
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021116/msgs/128318.html