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.

Antidepressants and risk of bone fracture

Are broken bones the price paid for a better attitude? Some researchers may think so. In a rather large study (124,655 fracture cases and 373,962 age and gender matched controls), relationships between fractures were seen with the following psychiatric medications:

Amitriptyline (Elavil), clomipramine (Anafranil), citalopram (Celexa), fluoxetine (Prozac), and sertraline (Zoloft) were all associated with an increased risk of fractures. Imipramine (Tofranil) and nortriptyline (Pamelor) did not demonstrate this association. Paroxetine (Paxil) showed a slight relationship but statistically it was insignificant.

No medication is perfect, ever. However, antidepressants are used for a wide variety of medical problems, and as you know if you read my blog, many of these uses are off-label. For anyone with a family history of osteoporosis, or in a demographic group at risk for osteoporosis, it is important to (1) weight the risks vs. benefits of your prescribed medication before taking it, and(2) consider consulting with a dietitian to enhance your diet and lifestyle choices to minimize the risk of bone-debilitating side effects.

Many of the lifestyle choices you are likely to be advised to adopt to prevent osteoporosis (more exercise, less soda, wider variety of foods) also enhance brain health. And what do you know--that may reduce your depressive symptoms as well.

(If you're getting tired of hearing that exercise, healthy food, adequate sleep, and less stress might be your answer...maybe that means you should try them...tee hee!!)

Vestergaard P, Rejnmark L, Mosekilde L. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Other Antidepressants and Risk of Fracture. Calcif Tissue Int. 2008 Jan 25 [Epub ahead of print]