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Believe it or not, depression can be good for your health. Ok, not that kind of depression. An economic depression. According to work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, people actually got healthier during the Great Depression.
On September 1st, we ran a story about the health benefits of a good recession. And we received several incredulous responses. Some listeners firmly believe that people eat and drink and smoke more when their finances are bleak. Now along comes another study of life and death during the granddaddy of economic downturns. This time, researchers find that life expectancy actually increased during the years of the Great Depression. Yes, the rate of suicides also increased, but only accounted for two percent of deaths.
So what makes economic good times bad for us? Well, economic growth has been linked to work-related stress, less sleep, on-the-job accidents, traffic fatalities and more pollution. Plus, spending more time at work could mean spending less time caring for sick family members. So when the economy turns healthy again, living more like we’re still in lean times might make us all a bit healthier, as well.
—Karen Hopkin
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16 Comments
Add CommentWonderful, that really makes my day! Changes my whole perspective of being without a job.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI guess you got to make the best of things when your down and out or commit suicide (the two percent solution).
Also eating a lot less and more sensibly (no junk foods) would have made a difference in the long term, as eating less is healthier than too much....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo much for the argument that the US health care system is not the best in the world because of our mortality rates. Our health problems are mostly self inflicted because we live in such a rich country.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat a silly conclusion. Maybe there were increased rates of vaccination, pasteurization, and development of penicillin in the early 1930s. Does it need repeating that "correlation does not prove causation?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with RobbyJill. There were tremendous medical advances during and around the time of the great depression. Given this, it is not much wonder life expectancy increased. You can hardly credit the great depression for increases in life expectancy. (Along these lines, maybe you can credit the cold war with another increase in life expectancy)!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is becoming so freaking predictable, it's not even funny. Liberal politician does something disastrous and suddenly you see stories in the press about how it's really a good thing. With Clinton it was how lying was healthy. Now, economic ruin will actually make you live longer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHeck, we don't need health insurance reform, we just need 30% unemployment!
Correlation does not imply causation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf depressions increase life expectancy then why did it continue to increase after WWII when everybody agrees that the economy grew and so did food consumption and those evil food additives and man made fertilizer techniques.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf this were true why didn't we see increase's in the depressions that preceeded it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is true: in the years of famine that followed spanish civil war, diabetes almost dissapeared, and probably vascular diseases too, as it was practically impossible finding fat people. Even tobacco was so hard to find, that some people collected the remains of cigarrettes throwed by others when approaching the finishment of cigarette. This is easy to reproduce, just prolong and deepen the current economic crisis. Anybody voting for this?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExactly right! We have the best survival rates post heart attacks, cancer therapy, etc. etc. We have the best health CARE in the world, and if you take the bias out of WHO "ratings" and similar "studies", we are near the top in many categories that we are criticized for. Most countries do not count stillbirths as infant mortalities, since they were never "alive" out of the womb, they couldn't have died. Other countries even require a fetus to survive a certain number of days before it's counted as a live birth. Others don't count grossly premature or malformed babies in their statistices. Eliminate all these, and the US is near the top, despite many obese mothers and others who sadly don't get prenatal care.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthis is so crazy. even though its sounds good i wouldnt want to live through something so devistating.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMice have shown a markedly higher life expectancy on a diet reduced by 2o% in energy. I have met healthy & mentally fit nonagenarians and centenarians , both here in Australia and in Germany, who had grown up during WWI or the Depression practically on a vegetarian diet of turnips, beets, carrots, beens, berries apples, and potatoes. A Danish study also showed that heart attacks decreased markedly during the two World Wars, when people were unable to stuff themselves with animal fats and sugar on a daily base. Obesity caused by the food industry is enormously stressful for our immune system . For us Third Chimpanzees, "Youthevity" can only be achieved by a correct feeding program, which means, mainly plant food, much of it raw.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisObviously, there is not necessarily a cause and effect relationship between the depression and life expectancy. Frankly, I doubt there is any one factor responsible , but I do believe some depression consequences mentioned here by others could well be contributory factors.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPeople eat less fat, protein, cholesterol and total calories when they are broke. All these improvements in diet are proven to increase life expectancy. Mark Lovendale
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisfrgough, I'd remind you that the economic downturn started during the Bush years, and that George Bush was the one who started all the bailout programs. Don't lay this at the feet of the liberals.
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