A little red meat may help your depression

If you have depression, you are not depressed because there is a deficiency of antidepressants in your body...

...however...

...you may be depressed because you have some basic nutritional deficiencies. One mineral that is involved in numerous brain and nervous system functions, and that has been extensively studied with regards to its role in the development of depression, is zinc.

Various doses of zinc were recently shown to improve immobility time in rats. Immobility in a stressful situation is a common behavior in depression. (When you are not depressed, you have better decision making and response times when it comes to managing stressful situations.)

That's exactly what fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), imipramine (Tofranil), desipramine (Norpramin), and bupropion (Wellbutrin) do!

When zinc and antidepressants were administered together, immobility time was reduced by more than either therapy produced on its own.

Practically what that says is that:
(1) if you are at risk for, or have had a history of depression, emphasizing high-zinc dietary choices and/or zinc supplementation would be a smart strategy, and
(2) if you are on an antidepressant, supplementing with zinc would be important to be sure that you get enough medication to do the job without getting so much that you set yourself up for detrimental side effects.

In fact, it seems to me that it should be an automatic recommendation of any physician, when prescribing an antidepressant, to write "zinc supplement" in the script as well...

FYI, your best sources of zinc include: red meats, liver, and oyster. And, when the originating soil is in good condtion...wheat, sweet corn, lettuce, beans, nuts, almonds, whole grains, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and blackcurrant. That's a lot of different options, something for practically everyone, meat eater or not!

Cunha MP, Machado DG, Bettio LE, Capra JC, Rodrigues AL. Interaction of zinc with antidepressants in the tail suspension test. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Dec 12;32(8):1913-20. Epub 2008 Sep 11.

If you fix the real problem...you just might fix the problem

I just love the conclusions scientists come to when they're encouraged to promote the concept that for every problem...there's a medication.

Here we have a research group who took a group of rats and exposed them to chronic, unpredictable stress. The rats started developing neuron profiles consistent with cell death. So did the researchers recommend that in situations where it appears that chronic, unpredictable stress may be causing functional issues and medical risk, to implement support that reduces that stress? Of course not, silly reader, why would they do that? Support doesn't fund research or salaries. Drug companies do.

And that is why desipramine (Norpramin) was researched as the answer to this problematic observation. Never mind that this medication has been associated with increased insulin and prolactin levels in some people, a new use for this medication which increases the bottom line has been reported...let's give a big whoo hoo for stockholders!

Way back when I worked for someone else who had no boundaries when it came to employees' expectations, I was expected to bring my own laptop computer to work and use it most of my workday to enter data. After awhile, since laptops really aren't ergonomically superior, I developed carpal tunnel in both wrists. I had been pitching the pretty reasonable concept that since every other manager at my level in this company had both a desktop computer and an administrative assistant that I was not afforded, that I should have them too. So when I developed a medical issue that appeared to be directly related to my not being heard with regard to this issue, I viewed the doctor visit as an opportunity to finally get the note I needed mandating a repetetive motion activity restriction.

Unfortunately, the physician I visited was employed by the same man. And he decided what I really needed was a medication to dampen the pain. Isn't pain supposed to be telling you something? That you need to stop doing what's making you hurt?

Aren't dying neurons telling you something? That maybe something is killing them?

This mentality, that we can ignore the source of the problem and put a chemical bandaid on it so we don't have to change unhealthy situations, sure makes a lot of money for some people.

Did you ever consider that such money can only be made if you agree to hand it over? Medications can't hurt you if you decide not to take them. I am not advocating throwing all of your prescriptions away, at all. I'm just encouraging you to know exactly WHY you're being given a prescription and to consider proven non-pharmaceutical options whenever possible.

I ended up walking out on this company. From what I hear, it took several rounds of burning out successors for them to realize the problem was not the work ethic of the employee in the position. It was the expectations of the position created by the person who didn't understand the cost savings involved when you spend a little more on healthy work environments that help to retain hard working people. Me and my now-healthy wrists have never looked back.

Bachis A, Cruz MI, Nosheny RL, Mocchetti I. Chronic unpredictable stress promotes neuronal apoptosis in the cerebral cortex. Neurosci Lett. 2008 Sep 12;442(2):104-8.

McIntyre RS, Soczynska JK, Konarski JZ, Kennedy SH. The effect of antidepressants on glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity: synthesis and mechanisms. Expert Opin Drug Saf 2006 Jan;5(1)157-68.

Guzek JW, Olczak S, Lewandowska A. The hypothalamic and neurohypophyseal vasopressor and oxytocic content as influenced by alpha-adrenergic blockade in stressed rats. Acta Physiol Pol 1985 May-Jun;36(3):193-200.

Watch out Lilly...here comes Lipton!

Who thought such a simple item you may already have in your cupboard could be so beneficial? I'm talking about tea!

I think if you're interested enough in health and the brain to even be reading this blog, you know that green tea has many health benefits. It's a great antioxidant, and it improves the brain's blood flow, making it easier for waste products to be flushed away from where they can do damage.

Scientists took green tea one step further in the following experiment. Mice were divided into three groups, each group receiving one of the following treatments: green tea, an antidepressant (in this case, desipramine/Norpramin), or an anti-anxiety medication (in this study, diazepam/Valium). Both low and high doses of green tea reduced depression-like behaviors within 30 minutes of administration.

Depression can slow thought processes and therefore problem solving, so these mice were put in a maze and timed for their performance. Higher doses of green tea reduced the time it took to complete the task.

One potential downside to the higher doses of green tea was that the higher doses also had somewhat of a sedative effect and reduced muscle strength and activity. The mice also were less responsive to exposures to a painful stimulus, in this case, heat.

The moral of the story appears to be that moderate doses of green tea might not be a bad thing. I'd recommend the decaffeinated version--and there are lots of great ones out there.

A green tea tip for all of you: Did you know you can cook with green tea? One of my company's sponsors, Organic Bistro, has a frozen dinner with green tea vegetables (www.theorganicbistro.com). So if you don't like to drink tea, you can sneak in some of its benefits by combining it with foods you DO enjoy.

Since it's Earth Day week, I'll slip in a little plug for thinking "outside the brain" and looking for organic brands of green tea. Here's a nice website with some options...http://greenshopper.com/product.aspx?parentId=235&childId=407

Sattayasai J, Tiamkao S, Puapairoj P. Biphasic effects of Morus alba leaves green tea extract on mice in chronic forced swimming model. Phytother Res. 2008 Apr;22(4):487-92.

Antidepressants and weight gain

If you're coming directly to this blog instead of linking through my website, you may be interested in a chart I have posted on that website, listing references referring to antidepressants and their potential for causing weight change (gain or loss). This particular chart ONLY covers antidepressants, but it is a very popular page and I wanted to let you all know about it.

The medications included to date are: Celexa/citalopram, Cymbalta/duloxetine, Effexor/venlafaxine, Elavil/amitryptyline, Ludiomil/maprotiline, Nardil/phenelzine, Norpramin/desipramine, Parnate/tranylcypromine, Paxil/paroxetine, Prozac/fluoxetine, Remeron/mirtazapine, Doxepin/sinequan, Tofranil/imipramine, Wellbutrin/bupropion, and Zoloft/sertraline.

The link to this chart is http://afterthediet.com/antidepressant_medications.htm