Nutrition and Lifestyle connections with Depression: Part 1

It’s time to cover a very important topic that has touched the lives of many of us. This is a longer publication than I usually do so I broke it up into three parts. It reflects a year of up to date research and on the topic that I have a hard time sharing in a couple pages.  

Part One:Understanding Depression

Seventy million Americans will experience major depression at some point in their lives - one in four women and one in ten men. Thirty-three million Americans take antidepressants.   About one in eight of us. They are the most prescribed drug among Americans between the ages of twenty and fifty-nine. It’s important to explore the following underlying information behind it.  Separation of brain and body often prevents us from finding the real cause of depression.

I like to explore lab work to check your nutritional status or hormone levels, or toxins that may have built up in your body, as well as a neurotransmitter profile.  It’s also important to look at psychological causes like childhood trauma, persistent negative thinking, social causes like rocky relationships and losing your job, lifestyle causes like poor sleep and lack of exercise, medical causes like diabetes, heart disease, and drug side effects and biological causes like nutritional deficiencies, chronic infections, and genetic mutations. 

Causes of Depression

Imbalanced Neurotransmitters

Many factors can cause imbalances in neurotransmitters.

Chronic stress

Poor diet

Nutritional deficiencies, like low blood levels of vitamin D

Too little sleep

Chronic low-grade inflammation

Neurodegenerative diseases, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s

Environmental toxins

An imbalance of gut bacteria (dysbiosis), weakening the gut-brain axis

Chronic illness, like diabetes or autoimmune diseases

Medical Conditions

If you have a chronic disease and you’re depressed, it’s important to address both problems

Medications

Depression can be a side effect of many medications, including corticosteroids, chemotherapeutic drugs for cancer, and even some psychiatric medications

Hormone Imbalances

The hormone-generating endocrine system sends messages throughout the body, regulating every function. Even a slight imbalance - low levels of thyroid hormones; imbalances of estrogen and progesterone; low testosterone - can trigger depression.

Genetic Factors

In many cases, depression is an inherited disease. It’s estimated that 40 to 50 percent of the risk for major depressive disorder (MDD) is inherited, particularly for severe depression.

Psychological and Social Factors

Loneliness to low esteem.

Diagnosing Depression

Major depressive disorder (MDD)

• Feeling sad, empty, hopeless, irritable, or discouraged

• Noticeably reduced interest or pleasure in almost all activities once enjoyed

• Significant unintended weight change

• Difficulty sleeping or sleeping excessively

• Agitation/restlessness or slowed movements and speech

• Fatigue or loss of energy

• Feeling worthless or excessively guilty

• Difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions

• Frequent thoughts of death

Functional mental health recognizes that depression has many causes, often requiring a range of therapies, including medications if needed.

Deficiencies and imbalances, such as the following, also hinder recovery with medications and therapy: nutritional deficiencies, hormone imbalances, chronic inflammation, gut problems, poor sleep, food allergies, chronic, undetected infections, genetic mutations, sedentary living, toxins, and many more.

First test, then treat. Test to find the deficiencies and imbalances.

Tests to consider:

• Celiac screening

• CBC/CMP

• Lipid panel

• Iron panel and ferritin

• Vitamin D (25-hydroxy vitamin D)

• C-reactive protein (CRP)

• Vitamin B12

• Thyroid panel and thyroid antibodies

• D3

• Hormones (estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone)

• Amino acid panel

• Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)

Depression is complex, and there’s rarely one single cause or solution. Understanding how your physical health, nutrition, hormones, lifestyle, and emotional well-being work together is an important step toward finding the right support. While testing can help identify underlying health concerns that may contribute to symptoms, it’s just one piece of the bigger picture. The good news is that there are many ways to support both your mental and physical health.

Read on to Part Two, where we’ll take a closer look at the connection between nutrition, lifestyle, and depression, and explore steps you can take to support your mental well-being.