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Clinical depression is a serious medical illness that not only can turn a happy retirement into a time of misery, but also leads to a wide range of health problems. Depression increases the rate of disease such as stroke, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease and worsens the course of others such as diabetes, chronic lung disease, and cancer. It also contributes to avoidable disability and premature death. Beat Depression to Stay Healthier and Live Longer alerts readers to this untold story. It challenges beliefs that depression is normal in old age because old age is depressing, instead helping readers see that depression is a serious brain disease, often related to changes in the brain associated with the aging process. Gary S. Moak clearly and compassionately explains depression as a physically destructive state, in which a brain on overdrive runs the body ragged, accelerating age-related wear and tear.