New research shows that adults who have lower consumption of fruits and vegetables have a higher probability of being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. This finding helps to explain the discovery of a connection between body composition and anxiety disorders.
Anxiety disorders include social anxiety; generalised anxiety in which a person feels anxious on most days, worrying about lots of different things, for a period of six months or more; some specific phobias; panic disorder; obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Canadian researchers analysed data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging and discovered that individuals who consume less than three sources of fruits and vegetables daily, presented at least at 24 per cent higher odds of anxiety disorder diagnosis.1 The study was led by Dr Karen Davison, a health science faculty member and nutrition informatics lab director at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), in British Columbia.
“This may also partly explain the findings associated with body composition measures. As levels of total body fat increased beyond 36 per cent, the likelihood of anxiety disorder increased by more than 70 per cent,” said co-author Jose Mora-Almanza.
“Increased body fat may be linked to greater inflammation. Emerging research suggests that some anxiety disorders can be linked to inflammation,” Davison said.
Researchers found that in addition to diet and body composition measures, the prevalence of anxiety disorders differed by gender, marital status, income, immigrant status and several health issues.
Gender Inconsistency
Gender also appears to play a role as one in nine women had an anxiety disorder compared to one in fifteen men.” Our findings are in keeping with previous research which has also indicated that women are more vulnerable to anxiety disorders than men,” said co-author Dr Karen Kobayashi, Professor in the Department of Sociology and a Research Affiliate at the Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health at the University of Victoria.
Income Effect
The prevalence of anxiety disorders among those who had always been single (13.9 per cent) was considerably higher among those who were living with a partner (7.8 per cent). Approximately one in five respondents with household incomes under $20,000 per year had anxiety disorders, more than double the prevalence of their more affluent peers2.
“We were not surprised to find that those in poverty had such a high prevalence of anxiety disorders; struggling to afford basics such as food and housing causes relentless stress and is inherently anxiety-inducing,” says co-author Hongmei Tong, Assistant Professor of Social Work at MacEwan University in Edmonton.2
Individuals with three or more health conditions had fivefold the prevalence of anxiety disorders in comparison to those with no chronic conditions (16.4 per cent vs 3 per cent). Those in chronic pain had double the prevalence of anxiety disorders in comparisons to those who were free of pain.3
“Chronic pain and multiple health conditions make life very unpredictable and can be anxiety-producing. One never knows whether health problems will interfere with work or family responsibilities and many activities become more challenging and time-consuming,” said co-author Shen (Lamson) Lin, a doctoral student at the University of Toronto. Perhaps as a surprise, immigrants to Canada had a lower prevalence of anxiety disorders compared to their peers born in Canada (6.4 % vs 9.3%)3.
“Immigrants may face a myriad of challenges associated with resettling in a new country, including language barriers, poverty, difficulties in getting qualifications recognised, and limited social support, so it seems counterintuitive that they should have a lower likelihood of anxiety disorders than those born in Canada.
“It may be that potential immigrants with anxiety disorders would find the challenges of relocation too anxiety-inducing and would therefore not choose to immigrate, so there is a ‘self-selection’ for those with lower anxiety,” said senior author Dr Esme Fuller-Thomson, a professor at FIFSW and director of the Institute for Life Course & Aging.
Healthy diet. Fresh food
Findings
The longitudinal study on ageing included 26,991 men and women between the ages of 45 and 85. Findings appear in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.2 Researchers note that an essential limitation of the study was that the assessment of anxiety disorders was based upon self-reporting of a medical diagnosis.
To adjust for this, authors conducted multivariate analyses taking into account the use of a family physician in the past year to address the possibility of under-reporting of anxiety disorders among those who rarely visited health professionals.
This adjustment was not found to substantially change the associations discussed above.
“It is estimated that 10 per cent of the global population will suffer from anxiety disorders which are a leading cause of disability,” said Davison.
“Findings suggest that comprehensive approaches that target health behaviours, including diet, as well as social factors, such as economic status, may help to minimise the burden of anxiety disorders among middle-aged and older adults, including immigrants.”4
Conclusion
Eat better, move more, improve lifestyle choices, live well and live smarter. Those wanting to improve life choices please look at Virtual Hypnotherapy if you are interested in losing weight, quit smoking, reducing anxiety or a range of other helpful therapeutic measures you can take for yourself right now.
Read more from LifestyleDr Karen Phillip
References:
1. Nauert, N. (2020). Unhealthy diet linked to anxiety disorders. PsyhCentral https://psychcentral.com/news/2020/03/04/unhealthy-diet-linked-to-anxiety-disorders/154542.html
2. Nutritional Factors, Physical Health and Immigrant Status Are Associated with Anxiety Disorders among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Findings from Baseline Data of The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). International Journal of Environmental Research. Public Health 2020, 17(5), 1493 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051493 1493; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051493
3. Global Health News (2020) https://globalhealthnewswire.com/2020/02/27/low-fruit-and-vegetable-intakes-and-higher-body-fat-linked-to-anxiety-disorders/
4. Medical Health (2020). https://www.medical-health.info/low-fruit-vegetable-intake-makes-people-vulnerable-to-anxiety-study/
