Posted by larryhoover on January 6, 2013, at 20:11:31
In reply to More evidence of inflammation and depression., posted by SLS on January 2, 2013, at 7:54:16
Hey, Scott. I hope you don't mind that I drop a few ideas into this thread. I've been doing a lot of literature research, starting with an earlier thread about inflammation and diet, and I've come to some interesting conclusions. Or, at least, some interesting questions, worthy of further investigation.
The association between inflammation and mental illness has been recognized for about a century. What's interesting to me is that dietary control of inflammation, with respect to mental illness, has generally only been applied to epilepsy. And yet, anti-epileptic drugs have come to be a considerable component of the arsenal applied to bipolar and related mood disorders.
A high-fat, low-carb diet has been the fall-back treatment for epilepsy for a very long time. And it is now in consideration for treatment in other disorders, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and others. The reason is that it reduces brain inflammation, and boosts mitochondrial function. I'll give you a few full-text
links to consider:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2649682/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2367001/
The great thing about PMC is that it provides direct access to supporting references at each point in the article where they're referenced (shown to the right of the text).And, just for a supporting role, you can consider this abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17663642You'll see that antioxidant status is improved under a high-fat, low-carb diet. For the record, a ketogenic diet is distinct from the ketoacidosis caused by uncontrolled diabetes. We're talking about the middle ground, here. When toxic carb intake is controlled, fat metabolism is more than capable of providing all the energy your body requires, and can do so in a safer fashion. In fact, I'd say that fat metabolism is the default energy source, and carb metabolism is the emergency one.
I'm at the airport, waiting for a flight, and I don't have time to give a detailed analysis of the subject, but I have discovered that there is a significant confound in any study into what are considered to be the diseases of western civilization, i.e. diabetes, obesity, cancer, hypertension, and senility. You may have trouble accepting just what that confound might be, but it is electric light.
My investigation began after I saw a TV program which showed that a simple machinery malfunction could induce obesity and inflammation in laboratory rats. The animals were to have been in a 12-hour cycle of light and dark, but the light controller failed, and the animals were exposed to 24-hour light. It took some time for the defect to be discovered, as the scientists themselves were absent from the lab during the period that was supposed to be dark, but in the meantime, the rats became obese and showed significantly enhanced inflammatory responses, despite the fact that all other variables were controlled. Light alone had made them fat and inflammatory.
If you look into the literature (Pubmed), you'll find that human experience matches that of the rats. In fact, it has always been a question raised in ecological monitoring of human health, how is it that adverse health effects associated with "diseases of western civilization" seem to precede changes in diet. Traditionally, consumption of refined carbohydrates, or intake of meat, has been blamed for these health outcomes (listed above), but the timing was inconsistent with dietary shifts; adverse health effects tended to precede dietary changes. Restrospective analysis has shown a near perfect correlation with the advent of electric lighting. Lights came first, diet changed after.
Further research has determined that blue light is the probable culprit. Blue light, sensed by the suprachiasmatic nucleas (SCN), and expressed in the reduced pineal secretion of melatonin, is the probable mechanism for this effect.
If you wish to research this further on Pubmed, I'll provide you with some keyword searches. I just don't have time, now at the airport, to give the needed references.
Some keywords/phrases are: circadian disruption, sometimes referenced as CD. This is a broad term, encompassing many subcidiary terms, which I will try to encompass more specifically. "night shift" covers a specific group of human workers, often a term applied to cancer investigations. (Hormone regulated cancers, i.e. breast, prostate, and ovarian, are directly caused by shift work.) The key variable appears to be decreased melatonin secretion, suppressed by blue light exposure after the sun goes down. And blue light is released by electric lights of all types, but not by candles, oil lamps, or open flame.
There are other phrases that pop up (light at night, or LAN). "Shift work", as a variant on night shift. In any case, combine these keywords/phrases with cancer, inflammation, obesity, hypertension, and be prepared to be amazed.
I'm concerned that posters here are trying to simplify an amazingly complex and confounded system down to single variables to manipulate for improvement of mental health. I don't think that is possible. You have to look at the package.
Earlier, I believe I provided compelling evidence that carbohydrate intake was the inflammatory (and obesigenic) variable in our diets. Carb restriction was the simple solution. But what about blue light exposure after the sun goes down? Surely, that is a variable of concern. And how do these variables play into depression? I don't know, but I'll tell you about my experience.
Once I made restorative sleep the primary variable in my own treatment protocol, I began to recover. Even one day of poor sleep has a significantly adverse effect on me. So, it is number one in my world. And, as part of that treatment protocol, I have been supplementing with melatonin. What I have recently discovered through Pubmed has provided me with extraordinary support. I always knew that melatonin was probably the most powerful free-radical scavenger and antioxidant produced by the body, but I hadn't realized how important it was in other aspects of health. Combine melatonin and mitochondria in a Pubmed search, and see what you get. Look at melatonin and heart disease, or obesity, or diabetes. Maybe blue-light mediated suppression of melatonin secretion by the pineal gland is the cause (yes, cause) of all of these adverse health effects, including depression.
All I know is, I have been using melatonin as a sleep aid for six years or more, and over that period, I have been doing better. I am not well (in my historical sense of self), but I am very much better. I think I got lucky, picking this supplement. But I now see why it might have been an amazingly beneficial choice. BTW, it apparently also treats ulcers, as an oral supplement. Who knew?
Blimey, the plane is boarding. Please, expand your search for health-limiting variables. Put together a package of behavioral changes. And optimize what you have in your life. It ain't all about meds. I won't ever be the man I was before I took ill, but I can be the man possible thereafter. If, and only if, I control the variables that I can.
Lar
poster:larryhoover
thread:1034419
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20121231/msgs/1034868.html