The Diet That Might Cure Depression?

The Diet That Might Cure Depression

Another physician, Daniel R. Brower of Rush Medical College, suspected that the increasing rates of melancholia—depression—in Western society might be the result of changing dietary habits and the resulting toxins dwelling in the gut.

Of course, like most medical ideas at the time, this one was not quite right. (And the proposed cures—removing part of the colon or eating rotten meat—seem worse than the disease.) Your gut doesn’t contain “toxins” that are poisonous so much as it hosts a diverse colony of bacteria called the “microbiome.” But these doctors were right about one thing: What we eat does affect how we feel, and gut microbes likely play a role.

A poor diet is a leading risk factor for early death, responsible for one in five deaths globally. Depression, meanwhile, is the leading cause of disability worldwide. A relatively new line of research suggests the two might be related: An unhealthy diet might make us depressed, and depression, in turn, makes us feel even sicker.

In a recently released abstract, researchers studying 964 elderly participants over six and a half years found those who followed the DASH diet, which emphasizes whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, had lower rates of depression, while those who ate a traditional Western diet were more prone to depression. The participants were asked how often they ate various foods, and they were screened for depression annually using a questionnaire.

The Diet That Might Cure Depression

Interestingly, I have changed my diet quite radically in the past few months and am feeling the benefit. Several months ago I developed the heart condition, Atrial Fibrillation - a scary but quite common problem among people of my age especially those with existing heart disease such as I have. My consultant adjusted my prescription medicines to help control the AF and suggested a healthier regime to lose weight and take more exercise. Coincidentally I had suffered repeated attacks of gout around the same time so I had been stuck at home taking very little exercise and my weight had consequently increased alarmingly.

As the gout subsided, I started to take more exercise including a mild form of yoga, playing lawn bowls, swimming and walking. In addition I read about heart-health and gout avoiding diets and decided to limit my meat and sugar intake. I cut out sweet snacks, sugar, white bread and red meat. I limited my meat to a very occasional lean, free-range chicken meal and occasional white fish. Otherwise, I have been eating lots of fruit and vegetables, making vegetable soups, etc. I am not even close to being a vegan in that I eat dairy (milk, cheese and eggs), fish and, as I said, chicken occasionally. 

So how did I fare? I have lost 8KG (about 18 lbs), have not had a sign of gout in those 3 months and no AF events for the past two months. My mood has improved and depression (a life-long curse) has not featured. I feel generally fitter and healthier than I have for years.

Heal Your Gut, Heal Your Mind

Cytokines are able to trigger depression by altering activity in the regions of the brain that control mood. They also cause damage in those regions.

This can result in feelings of negativity and fatigue, an effect that has also been observed in cancer therapy. Cytokine is used to treat some cancers and viral infections — and can trigger the onset of major depression in up to 45% of patients.

It is possible to increase serotonin levels in the brain by controlling your diet:

Eating carbohydrates causes the body to produce insulin which increases tryptophan uptake by the brain. Tryptophan is released when protein is digested and as more tryptophan is taken in by the brain serotonin production increases. By waiting 20-40 minutes after eating carbohydrates before you eat protein, you give the body time to produce insulin before you give it protein.
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A simple way to do this is to eat the carbohydrate portion of your meal first then wait 20 minutes before eating the protein portion.

The link above (from my blog) has links to articles written by Judith Wurtman, the scientists who studied this phemomenon.

I use this technique everyday because it enhances the effects of meditation. After a while you can feel when your insulin levels are up and you don't have to time it. I also used to feel really horrible if I did too  much physical exercise so I had to limit activities I liked to do. Since I started eating this way, I still feel a small effect from a lot of exercise but by using this technique I don't have to limit the amount of exercise I do. It definitely works.

[Laird]

It is possible to increase serotonin levels in the brain by controlling your diet

I just gave this a go, Jim. No luck this time - I felt better even before the carbs - but it could be because I've had a fair bit of caffeine today, or maybe I ate the wrong relative/absolute amounts of carbs and protein. Might give it another go another time.

Lustig is great for this

[video=youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM[/video]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N802BNX/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0095ZMPTU/

I have some personal input, will make another post in a bit. But my opinion is largely shaped by the influence of Lustig et al.

Alright, so I have yet another diet. I probably have a better understanding of biochemistry than a lay person (around 10 years in bio related fields), but I am not a physician.

My personal avoid as much as possible (people in general know these, but I provided some rationale):

Sweetened beverages - you're asking for an insulin spike if it has fruit sugar or high fructose corn syrup, since there's no fiber. So, this includes juice, in addition to soda, etc. It will make you feel like crap. Fruit is good, juice is not.

Junk food - Manufactured to hit all of your brains pleasure sensors. It will also likely cause an insulin spike. When your blood sugar drops after the insulin spike, you will feel tired, and possibly hungry again, causing you to overeat, consume, and buy more junk food.

Food with aspartame - people generally focus on the metabolite of methanol from the aspartame. I actually don't care much about that, there's trace methanol in fruit. Its the phenylalanine. (I don't know how rigorous the following is, but my anecdotal evidence led me to the conclusion. Some of the foods to eat is also based on this (sources of tryptophan)). Phenylalanine, along with tyrosine and tryptophan compete for the neutral amino acid transporter for the brain. If you eat something with aspartame, it is quickly broken down, with a little more than 50% of its mass as phenylalaine. But proteins, likely take longer to break down, and a small portion of protein is tryptophan. You need tryptophan to make important brain chemicals, but most of it is already uptaken in the gut.

Thus, (it is possible) that the large amount of free phenylalanine could disrupt the amount of tryptophan in your meal that reaches the brain. 


Has worked well in my diet:

I aimed my diet at good brain health, since I have to analyze data for my full time job. This has improved my brain energy, even when I am sick. I hope that some of these findings are universal, but much inherent variability in biology.

Since I am hoping to improve brain health, I focused on good sources of fat. The brain has a lot of fat. Another note, it may take a bit to feel the effects, since (I think) it takes a while to replenish fat type tissues. If left to my own devices, I would eat a carb heavy diet that is heavy in certain fats that are probably fried, refined, and of only certain specific kinds that are economically cheap for food manufacturers. So, this has been a heavy shift, but my brain feels a lot more agile.  

Eggs - great source of tryptophan, everything nature needs for growth is in an egg. I don't worry about dietary cholesterol.

Nuts - good sources of fat, great to replace for your snacking desires, I like unsalted mixed nuts to get a variety of nutrition. Just watch the calories

Mixed greens with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Fish oil / omega 3 source - one of my most respected professors emphasized if theres one thing hes learned to take, its fish oil. Especially in america, our dietary fat balance of omega 6 to omega 3 is out of balance due to the prevalent crops / feed given to the animal. Supplementing omega 3 is definitely a good idea. Not sure how much eating fish that is farmed would help, but wild salmon is definitely good (but pricy).

I'm not sure how much it helps, but I like to drink pigmented beverages. Green tea, turmeric with black pepper tea, snow chrysanthemum, rooibos. Its fun to change them up, and hopefully has some good stuff as well. (again, definitely don't add sugar) This also goes into making sure to hydrate well, and get enough sleep. Both very important.

Lastly, supplements, in general, I think its better to get from natural sources, as you get a balance of compounds, as opposed to a large amount of only one type of chemical. A good example of this is people oversupplementing certain vitamins actually having worse prognoses. Of course, there are exceptions based on individual chemistry.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to pick up some more good ideas in this thread.

[Laird]

Might give it another go another time.

It seems to have worked this time. Happy Laird.

Edit: admittedly, it's hard to know whether this was a genuine effect (it was minor) or just a random (again, minor) fluctuation in mood.

http://www.skeptiko-forum.com/threads/dr...ost-124400

What spiritual practices are best?

Here's a new one I just discovered.

Do a few minutes of vigorous anaerobic exercises such as calisthenics (push-ups, pull-ups, squats, etc.), weight lifting, or sprinting before meditating. Anerobic exercise requires a lot of glucose to fuel it so in response the body releases stored sugar into the blood stream. I think what happens is that the rise if blood glucose causes insuln production which increases tryptophan uptake by the brain which increases serotonin levels. Regardless, I find that just a very few minutes makes a big difference in what happens during meditation.

When Gut Bacteria Change Brain Function

by David Kohn

By now, the idea that gut bacteria affect a person’s health is not revolutionary. Many people know that these microbes influence digestion, allergies, and metabolism. The trend has become almost commonplace: New books appear regularly detailing precisely which diet will lead to optimum bacterial health.

But these microbes’ reach may extend much further, into the human brains. A growing group of researchers around the world are investigating how the microbiome, as this bacterial ecosystem is known, regulates how people think and feel. Scientists have found evidence that this assemblage—about a thousand different species of bacteria, trillions of cells that together weigh between one and three pounds—could play a crucial role in autism, anxiety, depression, and other disorders.

“There’s been an explosion of interest in the connections between the microbiome and the brain,” says Emeran Mayer, a gastroenterologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has been studying the topic for the past five years.