Study Shows Depression-Heart Disease Link
 (Chicago, AP, 2/10/04)

Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and colleagues, reviewed data on 93,676 older female participants in a government study on women's health. The researchers found that older women who are depressed, even if they are apparently healthy, have a greater risk of dying from heart disease than their peers. Scientists theorize that depression may activate stress hormones, causing blood vessel constriction or that it may induce inactivity, which could trigger an increase in inflammatory proteins in the blood