People who are physically weak are more likely to be depressed, which may explain why depression rates are highest among women, according to a new study.
SO WHAT
The findings are a blow to the woke worldview that denies biology and celebrates victimhood.
WHAT THEY FOUND
In the paper, published Tuesday in open access journal Evolution, Medicine and Public Health, a team of social scientists reported a negative association between grip strength – widely used as a proxy for upper body strength – and depression.
The researchers — two anthropologists from Washington State University and a psychologist from the University of Helsinki — theorized that physical strength might help individuals avoid assault, one of the leading risk factors in depression.
- “Although many factors influence depression, few of these reliably occur cross-culturally in a sex-stratified manner and so are unlikely to explain the well-established, cross-cultural sex difference in depression,” they wrote.
- “The sex difference in upper body strength occurs in all populations and is therefore a candidate evolutionary explanation for some of the sex difference in depression.”
- Women, who are generally physically weaker than men, are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression.
A 2021 study by researchers at Tulane University found that physical strength partly explains the higher incidence of anxiety among women.
MEANWHILE
In a Pentagon press release earlier this month, Army officials said they have been seeing growing signs of physical weakness among America’s youth.
- “The ‘Nintendo Generation’ soldier skeleton is not toughened by activity prior to arrival, so some of them break more easily,” said Army Maj. Jon-Marc Thibodeau, a clinical coordinator at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
- According to a 2016 study, grip strength among U.S. males declined by 16% from 1985.
- Gen Z has also proved more susceptible than previous generations to depression, anxiety and other mental health issues.