What If Depression Is a Symptom

Have you done all the things your doctor recommended you do after a diagnosis of depression? You faithfully take your antidepressant every day, you go see your therapist once a week to talk about life and what might be hidden deep inside causing your depression. And after all that, maybe even years of all that, you aren’t getting any better. Maybe your doctor has said that this is the reality of depression, that this is the best you can hope for. It’s faulty wiring that can’t be fixed. You’ll be managing your symptoms with medication the rest of your life. As if you weren’t depressed enough, this news does not help!!

The going theory for years has been that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance and that medication is the best, possibly only, option. We’ve heard this from our doctors, from big pharma, we’ve likely heard it repeated by our friends and family that worry about us and are just trying to help. This idea is deeply ingrained in our psyche. And on the surface, it even kind of makes sense, or maybe its just that we’ve heard it for so long, we’ve come to accept it as fact. Either way, with the increase in depression diagnosis, and the $10 billion dollar price tag that the US market is paying for its current treatment, it’s worth taking a look to see if there might be another cause, needing a completely different treatment.

Ok, so stick with me for a minute here. I want you take look at depression in a new way, likely a way you’ve never considered. What if depression is not a disease at all. What if depression is actually a symptom? What if depression is your bodies way of saying something is wrong and needs some attention?

There is research currently being done that is looking at depression in this way and the results are pretty compelling. The current theory of depression as a symptom is being called the "Cytokine Model." In this model, depression is a symptom of chronic inflammation. In fact, if you look a little further, you'll discover that inflammation is a root cause of almost all modern day diseases that so many are suffering from, such as heart disease, Alzheimer's, autoimmune issues, arthritis, allergies, and asthma, just to name a few.

 So what is it that is causing all this inflammation? Unfortunately our convenient and modern way of living encourages inflammation. The standard American diet and many other lifestyle factors lead to inflammation, in turn leading to disease states. This might sound dire, but it's not, in fact we have a lot of control over our health. I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm saying its possible and that possibility should have you feeling emboldened and empowered. With some changes to diet and lifestyle, you can have a huge impact on the inflammation in your body, often preventing and even reversing these chronic conditions.

 Alright, back to depression and inflammation. Let's take a look at the various factors in modern day life that may be leading to inflammation and therefore depression:

DIET

This is a biggie! Our modern day diet if full of highly inflammatory foods, such as sugar, refined grains, processed oils, trans fats, preservatives added to our foods, and the wide range of chemicals used during growth. On the flip side, our diets are low in foods that will actually reduce inflammation such as long-chain omega-3 fats, fermented foods, and resistant starches.

GUT HEALTH

The health of our gut is critical to health in general, and this is an area where most Americans are struggling. A disruption to your gut microbiome or a case of leaky gut (intestinal permiability) will contribute to inflammation and in turn depression. Here's a basic breakdown of how this happens; the leaky gut permits toxins and inappropriate sized food particles to enter the blood stream, when this happens they activate the immune system which in turn releases inflammatory cytokines, and as you're learning, this inflammation leads to depression.

POOR QUALITY SLEEP, OR TOO LITTLE SLEEP

We all know when we don't get enough sleep, or we have disrupted sleep, it can leave us feeling exhausted, irritable, and with a  bad case of brain fog. When this chronic poor sleep pattern happens, there is an increase of inflammatory markers, even in those that are otherwise healthy.

CARRYING EXCESS WEIGHT

The diet most of us are eating today, which is full of sugar and processed foods, has led to a dramatic increase in weight in a large portion of the population. Excess weight, particularly obesity, is an inflammatory state. Studies have found that those that are overweight tend to have higher levels of inflammatory cytokines. When weight loss occurs there is a decrease in those cytokines. The link between obesity and depression is definitely complicated, but there does seem to be a significant link to inflammation.

VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY

In this day and age where most of us spend the majority of our time indoors, and slather ourselves with sunscreen when we do go out, it's no wonder that a large portion of the population is deficient in Vitamin D. Vitamin D reduces inflammatory markers that are commonly associated with depression. Supplementing with Vitamin D has been shown to reduce inflammatory markers in many individuals.

What does all this mean for you?

The relationship between inflammatory cytokines and symptoms of depression was discovered all the way back in the 1980’s. Scientists found that when they administered these molecules that were so closely associated depression, to healthy individuals, they produced all the necessary symptoms for a diagnosis of depression. This should have been huge front page news, but unfortunately the “chemical imbalance” theory is the one that stuck and has continued to gain traction over the years, even with little correlation between serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and depressive symptoms. Big pharma has definitely played a role in perpetuating this idea. Antidepressant drugs, based on this “chemical imbalance” theory, are the second most prescribed medication. Eleven percent of Americans over the age of 12 now take an antidepressant. In 2010 doctors wrote a mind blowing 254 million prescriptions for antidepressants.

This new understanding of depression is HUGE for those of us that have ever received this diagnosis and have been told medication is our only option. When we switch our focus from disease to symptom, we are given a huge gift. We now know we need to do some digging to find out what exactly it is our body is trying to tell us. When we pinpoint the trigger and fix that, we are now relieved of the symptoms of our “incurable” disease. Pretty powerful, right?

Another really positive here is that though the stigma of depression has lessened slightly the last few years, many people continue to feel shame or blame for their condition, thinking something is wrong with them. Understanding that there is an underlying condition that is leading to this depressive symptom can offer a huge sense of relief from this self blame.

Now what to do with this new knowledge?

If you or someone you love is struggling with depression, there are a couple things you can do to start the healing process.

Number one is going to be to take a look at your diet and lifestyle. Are you eating the standard American diet full of highly processed foods, refined grains, and sugar? If so, it’s time to switch to a whole food, nutrient dense diet, with lots of healthy fats, a good amount of healthy animal protein, and the majority of your carbs should come from organic fruit and veggies. Also take into consideration the amount and quality of your sleep, an appropriate amount of physical activity, and stress management.

The next thing you’ll want to do is to look into any other potential causes of chronic inflammation that could be causing your depression. Do you have an underlying gut issue? Chronic infection? Have you had exposure to heavy metals or mold? Are you low in Vitamin D? If you need help digging into these possibilities, click below to schedule a free Discovery Call to see if Nutritional Therapy might help you resolve these underlying issues.

Whatever you decide to do with this new found knowledge, I hope you’ll leave this page feeling hopeful and empowered to take charge of your health!