Fish-Rich Diet Could Lower the Risk of Depression, Study Says

But researchers were careful to emphasize that the study is purely observational, which is why they couldn’t prove that eating fish and warding off depression are in a cause and effect relationship. Because of that, Fang Li, professor at Qingdao University in Shandong, China, said that a cause-and-effect association between lower risks of depression and high fish consumptions can not be established. The studies offered a full perspective as ten (10) of them were conducted in Europe, seven (7) in the United States, and the rest in South America, Asia and Oceania. Researchers reported a 17 percent drop in the risk of depression in survey respondents who said they ate a diet high in fish.

Dongfeng Zhang and his colleagues suspect that the omega-3 fatty acids in fish could alter the microstructure of brain membranes, and even affect the behavior of the neurotransmitters-dopamine and serotonin-that are involved in depression.

Thus, it was shown that men who eat lots of fish lower their chance of depression by as much as 20 percent, while women decrease their risk of becoming depressed by 16 percent. “Among women, the associated reduction in risk was 16%”, the study stated.

It is not transparent because eating some-more fish competence reduce a risk of depression, though there are several mechanisms that could be during work in a link, a researchers said.

Researchers say that eating fish has yet another health benefit – it prevents depression from setting in. For instance, consumption of fish seemed to have a far greater impact on European depression levels. “Future studies are needed to further investigate whether this association varies according to the type of fish”, the authors noted in a paper which appeared online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Furthermore, obtaining data about mental health, in general, is hard due to the prevalence of reporting bias, in which people misreport their feelings or suppress information they do not think is important or do not feel comfortable sharing. Adding to that, the researchers did not know which forms of fish the study’s participants consumed. Both of these chemicals play a key role in depression. This theory is not entirely new, but more evidence is always useful, given the fact that there are about 350 million people on the globe who suffer from depression.