Two recent US studies suggest citrus fruit and GLP-1 drugs may lower risks of depression.
A Harvard Medical School study published in Microbiome found people who eat an orange every day may lower their depression risk by as much as 20 percent.
The research, which relied on data from more than 32,000 women in the Nurses Health Study II (among the largest investigations into risk factors for major chronic diseases in women), further explained the lowered risk may be due to gut microbiome changes.
Noting just ‘one medium orange a day’ may do the trick, lead author Dr Raaj Mehta explained his team found a link between citrus fruit consumption and an increased presence of 15 different bacterial species in the gut microbiome, including Faecalibacterium prausnitzii; low levels of this bacteria are linked to depression.
Dr Mehta added: ‘The effect seems to be specific to citrus. When we look at people’s total fruit or vegetable consumption, or at other individual fruits such as apples or bananas, we don’t see any relationship between intake and risk of depression.’
Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Florida, whose study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found people who take glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist medications (GLP-1 drugs) like Ozempic to treat diabetes had a 10 percent lower depression risk than peers taking other types of drugs for this condition – particularly dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP4i) like Januvia (a brand-name oral tablet prescribed for type 2 diabetes).
