title: Metabolic syndrome improvement in depression six months after prescribing simple hygienic-dietary recommendations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Changes in diet and exercise have been separately demonstrated to improve Depression, although scientific evidence available is scarce. In a previously published controlled study, just recommending these and other lifestyle measures (sleep restriction and sunlight exposure) in combination once, patients experienced improvements in their depressive symptoms six months later. In this sample, one in three depressive patients had metabolic syndrome (MetS) at baseline. First line treatment of MetS condition is hygienic-dietetic, being Mediterranean diet and exercise especially important. Therefore we analyzed if lifestyle recommendations also improved their metabolic profile.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the sixth month evaluation, a smaller number of patients from the group receiving hygienic-dietary recommendations met MetS criteria comparing with the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggests that costless lifestyle recommendations, such as exercise and Mediterranean diet, have the capacity to promote both mental and physical health in a significant proportion of depressive patients. Further research is needed to confirm or discard these preliminary findings.
authors.affiliation: Institut Universitari d'Investigació en Ciències de la Salut (IUNICS), University of Balearic Islands and Red de Investigación en Actividades Preventivas y Promoción de la Salud (RedIAPP), Palma, Spain. mauro.garcia@uib.es.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garcia-Toro
authors.forename: Margalida
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gili
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ibarra
authors.forename: Saray
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Monzón
authors.forename: Margalida
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vives
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Garcia-Campayo
authors.forename: Rocío
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gomez-Juanes
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roca
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged