PREDIMED, one of the largest interventional dietary trials, randomized more than 7,000 men and women
at high cardiovascular risk into different diet groups and followed them for years.
«While we don't know which comes first — depression or
cardiovascular disease — the consensus is that depression is a
risk marker for
cardiovascular disease, meaning if you have
cardiovascular disease, there is a
higher likelihood that you could also have depression, when compared with the
risk in the general population,» said Victor Okunrintemi, M.D., M.P.H., a research fellow
at Baptist Health South Florida in Coral Gables, Florida, and lead author of a pair of studies that looked
into different aspects of depression and
cardiovascular disease.