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Depression, Osteoporosis Correlation Misreported by Junk Science Media, Ill-Informed Health Researchers

an old man in depression

Conventional medical researchers around the world are scratching their heads over new research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine that shows a strong correlation between depression and osteoporosis. Amazingly, none of them apparently have the presence of mind to consider the simple, common cause behind both conditions: Chronic vitamin D deficiency.

This new research found that 17 percent of women with depression showed thinner hip bones, while only 2 percent of non-depressed women showed the same thinness of hip bones. The mainstream media is reporting on the study in articles like this one at the BBC.

The more idiotic media outlets are even reporting that depression causes osteoporosis. See this article in The Hindu:

Note that the study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine makes absolutely no causal relationship between depression and osteoporosis. It only points out a correlation. Leaping to the conclusion that one disease actually causes another disease is a common error of intellectually challanged journalists who have no understanding of basic logic or the difference between causation and correlation. The truth is that many news reports that claim one disease "causes" another are blatantly wrong: Most of these correlated diseases simple have a common root cause.
 
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Depression and osteoporosis share a common cause: Chronic vitamin D deficiency. A lack of vitamin D in your body will make you depressed. It will also cause your bones to become brittle, leading to a diagnosis of osteoporosis. Vitamin D, you see, is necessary for the body to successfully use calcium, and if you don't have sufficient levels of vitamin D in your body, you can take all the calcium you want and you'll never boost bone mineral density.

The vast majority of Americans (and Canadians and Brits, for that matter) are chronically deficient in vitamin D. Estimates range anywhere from 60 percent to 75 percent of the population, depending on whom you ask and which geographic region you're talking about. People who live closer to the equator (in Southern U.S. states, for example, or parts of Australia) get more sunlight and therefore have lower rates of vitamin D deficiency. People who live in rainy climates where clouds block the sun most of the year have much higher rates of vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D deficiency also strongly promotes breast cancer, prostate cancer and other cancers. And wouldn't you know it: Breast cancer rates are lowest in Southern U.S. states. Depression rates, at the same time, are highest in Seattle and similar places where clouds block out the sun.

To say that depression "causes" osteoporosis is remarkably ignorant. It's a mistake that a seventh-grade science student might make on a school paper, but I would hope that adult medical research and news reporters would at least be intelligent enough to get past this simple logic error. Saying that depression "causes" osteoporosis is as silly as claiming that depression causes cancer, or that osteoporosis causes cancer. All three of these have the same common cause.

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