Gary Null, PhD

The last two decades have witnessed a huge increase in depression diagnoses. At present, one in ten Americans takes antidepressant medication and many of these individuals are taking multiple pills to treat more than one psychiatric illness. Few people will even raise an eyebrow anymore upon hearing about a friend or family member being diagnosed with depression.

It’s been my experience that the most profound healing outcomes occur not with pharmaceutical intervention but with a humanistic psychotherapy as well as whole body and mind approaches to wellness. This article outlines natural methods to not only help curb the symptoms of depression but also address the fundamental causes of the condition. By consciously making lifestyle choices that promote physical, men­tal, and emotional health, we create a mind–body balance that allows us to access vital tools for preventing and reversing depression.

Nutrition

Recent estimates are that half the people diagnosed as suffering from depression could obtain relief simply by having an underlying physical disease identified and treated. Among the conditions I have discovered that will cause hormone fluctuations that will manifest as depressive or anxiety-causing symptoms will include underactive thyroid, low blood sugar, cerebral allergy, a nutritionally induced or environmentally induced allergy, electromagnetic toxicity, lack of quality sleep, a nutrient deficiency, or chronic unremitting stressors. There are many practitioners within the orthomolecular movement who see things this way, yet most people continue to go right off to the psychiatrist or psychologist and get into standard therapeutic models. I have a great deal of concern about this, because of the dangers of Prozac and other psychiatric drugs.

Try The Least Invasive Approach First

More recently, there have been studies of a natural derivative of folic acid called methyl folate, showing it to be as effective as the antidepressant drug to which is was being compared. This supports the claim that nutritionally oriented doctors including orthomolecular psychiatrists have been making for many years now: folic acid prescribed in megadoses appears to be a stimulating antidepressant for some patients.

The amino acid tryptophan can be another key substance in the treatment of depression. According to Dr. William Goldwag, tryptophan helps raise the levels of serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical in the brain that has been found to be abnormally low in depressed people. We learned about serotonin from experiments in which certain drugs that preserve it from being destroyed in the brain seem to work for some antidepressants. The theory is that whatever can supply or aid the serotonin factor will help depression. Some foods that contain tryptophan can act as antidepressants. It is found most abundantly in milk and turkey.

Tryptophan is a precursor to Prozac and other drugs like it, drugs that amplify the activity of serotonin in the brain. Tryptophan, the substance from which the brain manufactures its own serotonin, does the same kind of thing when it is taken as a supplement. In controlled studies, it was found consistently to be as effective as the antidepressant drugs that were available. Five hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) is another compound, which is a little bit closer to serotonin. It seems to be even more effective than tryptophan.

While milk and turkey, as well as kiwifruit, figs and dates are good sources of tryptophan, there are plenty of foods that should be avoided.

The first step in eating a brain-healthy diet is to eliminate fast foods, simple carbohydrates, alcohol, artificial sweeteners, gluten, fried foods, white flour products, caffeine and meat based diet. This change should improve the chemical balances in your brain.

To prevent and combat depression, your diet should contain lots of organic, non-GMO fruits and vegetables, with soybeans and soy products, brown rice, millet, legumes, and essential fatty acids. Placebo-controlled research conducted with medicated patients suggests that adding omega-3 fatty acids, particularly eicosapentaenoic acid, may ame­liorate symptoms of major depressive disorder.

At all costs, you must avoid meat or fried foods, such as hamburg­ers and french fries. These foods are high in saturated fats that block the arteries and small blood vessels, interfering with blood flow. Your blood cells become sticky and clump together, leading to poor cere­bral circulation, accompanied by mental sluggishness and fatigue.

Depressed people are attracted to sugar and caffeine because of the initial lift it provides. Sugar does stimulate serotonin levels, which in turn temporarily improves your mood. But this initial surge of energy disappears in a matter of minutes. The reason behind the initial boost is that sugar, regardless of which form you are talking about, does not have to be digested and passes directly into the bloodstream, where it dramatically raises the blood sugar level, and overstimulates the pancreas to produce too much insulin. The excess insulin then causes the sugar level to plummet. Within half an hour of consuming a sugary snack, your blood sugar level will drop to very low levels, allowing fatigue, irritability, and anxiety to creep in. With these feelings present, the person seeks another boost from sugar, resulting in repeating the same, vicious cycle.

The Latest Research

An increasingly large body of evidence shows that a junk food diet can exact a heavy toll on our emotional well-being. A long-term study appearing in the journal Public Health Nutrition in 2011 observed that people who commonly ate fast food and processed baked foods were 51 percent more likely to suffer from depression than those people who rarely or never indulged in these foods. The study’s data reflected a dose-dependent relationship, meaning that the more unhealthy staples one consumes, the more at risk one is of suffering from depression. These findings are consistent with a 2009 analysis by British researchers that produced a clear link between diet and depression. Published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, the study concluded that people who consumed a diet high in foods, such as fried food, processed meat, refined grains, and sweets were 58 percent more likely to experience depression compared to those who consumed a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and fish.

The millennia-old practice of tai chi was shown to effectively combat major depression in seniors in a recent study by scientists at UCLA. The findings, which were published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, indicate that elderly patients diagnosed with the condition saw remarkable improvements after practicing a Westernized version of the Chinese martial art. The study compared the outcomes of two groups of seniors receiving standard depres­sion treatment. One group engaged in two hours of tai chi classes weekly over the course of ten weeks, while the other group spent the same amount of time attending a health education class. Both groups realized notable improvements, but the tai chi group experi­enced significantly better improvements in memory, cognition, and quality of life and had reduced levels of depression. Speaking in an interview, the study’s lead author, Dr. Helen Lavretsky, remarked, “With tai chi we may be able to treat these conditions without exposing [patients] to additional medications.”

Supplements

Even with a diet rich in recommended vitamins and minerals, your body may not efficiently absorb and process these necessary nutrients. As you grow older, your appetite may decrease, and you may find that you are unable to consistently take in the recommended amounts of food nutrients. Furthermore, loss of appetite is a common symptom of depression. It may be that getting these nutrients in supplement form is the most efficient way for you to enhance your healthy diet. However, supplements are not intended to replace healthy food choices.

Of course, before you begin any new health program, you should get a comprehensive, full-body evaluation performed by a qualified health care practitioner. A proper health and medical evaluation should evaluate your blood chemistry to assess your blood markers, your metabolic rate, and your blood pressure for indicators of cardiovascular, hormonal, or other imbalances or danger signs. If you are taking medications of any sort, for depression or any other condition, you need to inform your doctor of any supplements you are considering adding to your daily diet, as some may interact with prescription medications and cause adverse effects. You should always speak to your doctor before adding any of these supplements to your daily regimen.

Vitamins and Minerals

Certain vitamins and minerals are especially important in fighting depression.

Folic Acid – Folic acid levels are directly related to the severity of depression: The lower the level of folic acid in the blood, the more serious the level of depression. Low levels of folic acid have been linked to depression and bipolar disorder in a number of stud­ies. Insufficient folic acid is one of the most common nutritional deficiencies, and one-third of all adults are low in this important vitamin. I recommend that your daily B-complex vitamin contain at least 800 micrograms of folic acid. If you are taking folic acid as a separate supplement, always combine it with 1,000 micrograms of vitamin B12.

Vitamin B12 – Vitamin B12 deficiency may also play a part in depression. As we age, it becomes increasingly difficult for our bodies to absorb sufficient amounts of B12 from what we eat. So even if you are consuming adequate quantities of foods rich in B12, your body is not getting the full benefit. I recommend that your daily B-complex vitamin contain at least 1,000 micrograms of vitamin B12.

 

Continue to Page 2