For women, being depressed can raise the risk of developing
colorectal cancer, a new study shows. In the study published in
the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers from Brigham
and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health
analyzed data from the Nurses' Health Study, a long-term,
ongoing study involving some 121,700 female nurses. The
researchers analyzed data from 81,612 women who were cancer-free
at the start of the study. On two occasions four years apart,
the women were screened for depression using a five-question
survey that asked, for example, how often over the previous
month they had felt nervous, down or happy. Based on their
symptom scores, the women were divided into four categories.
About 8% of the women were classified as having high levels of
depressive symptoms. While these women were more likely than the
women who reported a lower degree of symptoms to be overweight,
to smoke, to be physically inactive, to eat a higher-calorie
diet and to consume more red and processe