Depression's Physical Toll: How it Impacts Chronic Disease

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Health & Fitness, Health, Alternative Health

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Story at-a-glance

Aside from being a mental health issue, depression also speeds up the onset of chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and arthritis, making them appear years earlier than expected
People with depression are significantly more likely to be hospitalized for serious physical conditions, with some illnesses requiring up to five times more hospital visits compared to those without depression
Depression causes chronic stress and inflammation, which damage your body at a cellular level, weakening your immune system, increasing blood sugar issues and accelerating disease progression
Poor sleep and gut health disruptions in depressed people worsen both mental and physical health, leading to higher rates of infections, digestive problems and metabolic disorders
Breaking the cycle of depression and disease requires addressing the root causes with appropriate sun exposure, gut-supporting probiotics, deep sleep, stress management and mitochondrial support

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everyone, and welcome to Dr. Mercola's Cellular Wisdom, the show where we look at health from the inside out, quite literally.
0:06.6	I'm Ethan, your resident collector of curious facts, keen observations, and more than a few wrinkles on the forehead.
0:13.1	Some say I see the world through a microscope with a dry sense of humor attached.
0:17.1	And I'm Alara, the overly talkative voice of reason who can't resist sharing a research study or two before breakfast.
0:23.8	I like to think of myself as the comedic translator for all things natural health.
0:28.3	Welcome to our humble corner of the podcast universe, folks.
0:32.2	Today's topic, depression and its sneaky ability to speed up physical illness.
0:36.8	According to Dr. Mercola and other researchers, depression isn't just a mental health hiccup.
0:41.3	It actually ushers in chronic diseases faster than you'd like to believe.
0:44.7	That's a plot twist worthy of a real-life drama.
0:47.3	Absolutely.
0:48.5	It's like depression is the pushy older cousin that invites heart disease, arthritis, or diabetes to the party years earlier than
0:55.3	scheduled. Not content with affecting your mood. It grabs every opportunity to give you a physical
1:00.7	health downgrade. Which is rude. You'd think it would stay in its lane and stick to low mood
1:05.2	and maybe an existential crisis here and there. But no, depression apparently has a well-rounded
1:10.2	skill set, stress,
1:11.6	inflammation, and even messing with your gut. It's impressive in the worst possible way.
1:15.6	Indeed it is. And the science is pretty clear. When you're chronically stressed, your body
1:21.6	goes into inflammatory overdrive. Cortisol level spike. Your immune system decides to take
1:26.6	extended coffee breaks. And the next thing you know, you're dealing with high blood pressure or metabolic issues on top of everything else.
1:33.3	Let's start with the basics. A recent study showed that depression basically speeds up the timeline for diseases like diabetes, arthritis, and heart conditions.
1:42.3	Instead of these conditions strolling in during the twilight
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Briana Mercola, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Briana Mercola and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.