Believe it or not, depression can be good for your health. Ok,
not that kind of depression. An economic depression. According
to work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, people actually got healthier during the Great Depression.
On September 1st, we ran a story about the health benefits of a
good recession. And we received several incredulous responses.
Some listeners firmly believe that people eat and drink and smoke
more when their finances are bleak. Now along comes another study
of life and death during the granddaddy of economic downturns. This
time, researchers find that life expectancy actually increased
during the years of the Great Depression. Yes, the rate of suicides
also increased, but only accounted for two percent of deaths.
So what makes economic good times bad for us? Well, economic growth
has been linked to work-related stress, less sleep, on-the-job
accidents, traffic fatalities and more pollution. Plus, spending
more time at work could mean spending less time caring for sick
family members. So when the economy turns healthy again, living
more like we're still in lean times might make us all a bit healthier,
as well.