Marital Problems + Depression = Obesity Risk

Most of us have seen the scene: someone nursing a broken heart, spoon in hand, working their way to the bottom of a tub of ice cream. Overeating when we feel low is so familiar that movies and TV lean on it as shorthand. The habit may carry real physical consequences, though, and not only the ones you'd expect from extra calories. Research from the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at The Ohio State University draws a line connecting depression, the way the body processes fatty and high-calorie food, and the strain of an unhappy marriage.

Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychiatry and psychology who directs the Institute, presented the findings with co-author Martha Belury, a professor of human nutrition at Ohio State. They shared the work at the New Horizons in Science briefings during ScienceWriters2014, an annual conference the university hosts. Their talk was titled "Metabolism: A new link between marital stress, depression and health."

The researchers recruited 43 healthy couples between the ages of 24 and 61, each married for three years or longer. Before anything else, participants filled out written questionnaires covering how satisfied they were in their marriage, whether they had any history of mood disorders, and any current depressive symptoms.

Across two full days of testing, couples ate meals built to resemble typical fast food, the kind of thing you'd get ordering a double Whopper with cheese at Burger King or a Big Mac with medium fries at McDonald's. One meal of eggs, turkey sausage, biscuits and gravy came to 930 calories and 60 grams of fat. Two hours after eating, each couple was asked to talk through subjects guaranteed to touch nerves: money, how they communicate, in-laws. Researchers left them alone but kept the camera running, later sorting the exchanges by markers like psychological abuse, distress-maintaining talk, hostility, or withdrawal.

To track how the body handled the food, investigators measured each person's energy expenditure, the calories burned turning food into usable energy, for 20 minutes out of every hour over the following seven hours. The equipment gauged oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air participants breathed in and out. Blood was drawn repeatedly as well, so that glucose, insulin, and triglyceride levels could be checked against where each person started.

The numbers stood out. People who carried both a diagnosed mood disorder and a more hostile marriage burned, on average, 31 fewer calories an hour, and in the first reading after the meal they had about 12 percent more insulin in their blood than participants in low-hostility relationships. Their insulin didn't drop to the levels seen in others until a full two hours had passed. These same high-hostility, depressed participants also showed a sharp spike in triglycerides four hours out, climbing past everyone else.

Why those two measures matter: insulin pushes the body to store fat, and persistently high triglycerides are a recognized warning sign for heart trouble. As Belury put it, "Insulin stimulates food intake and the accumulation of fat tissue in the abdomen, and adding that on top of the lower energy expenditure creates a higher likelihood for obesity. But it doesn't stop there: Elevated triglycerides lead to heart disease. Along with high insulin, elevated triglycerides indicate metabolism of sugars and fats is impaired. These are hallmarks of increased risk for heart disease and diabetes."

Add it up and a single meal cost the depressed, conflict-prone group roughly 118 fewer calories burned over the seven hours that followed, compared with couples who weren't depressed and weren't fighting. Stretched across a year, that gap alone could translate to something like 12 pounds of weight gain. Pair it with the triglyceride spike and the insulin picture, and the odds of Metabolic Syndrome (having three of the five risk factors tied to heart disease and diabetes) climb. Again, this came from one meal.

"Our results probably underestimate the health risks because the effects of only one meal were analyzed. Most people eat every four to five hours, and often dine with their spouses," Kiecolt-Glaser noted. "Meals provide prime opportunities for ongoing disagreements in a troubled marriage, so there could be a longstanding pattern of metabolic damage stemming from hostility and depression." She added that the work points in two directions at once: "These findings not only identify how chronic stressors can lead to obesity, but also point to how important it is to treat mood disorders. Interventions for mental health clearly could benefit physical health as well."

So there's a practical takeaway if you find yourself low. Next time an argument with your partner sends you toward the freezer and the ice cream, reaching for carrots or celery instead would serve your body better. Or skip the fridge entirely and take a walk to clear your head.

The short version: a history of marital discord paired with depression seems to leave people burning fewer calories after they eat, which can speed up weight gain. Reported by Laura A. Wells. Sources: Caldwell, E. (2014, October 20). Study Shows How Troubled Marriage, Depression History Promote Obesity. news.osu.edu. Ohio State University. (2014, October 21). How troubled marriage, depression history promote obesity. ScienceDaily.