Is diet strongly linked to depression?

Triathlon Forum
1

I am curious to see the responses to this one because this is something that seems ongoing for me. I have suffered from a cycle of depression all my adult life and I am wondering how much of a contribution a diet high in sugar plays. Let me be clear here and say that I am not interested in reading responses from individuals that will say “just get out and exercise…just smile and be happy etc.” - these responses come from people that are unaware that depression is a medical condition. Depression in my life means that I go through cycles of performing exceptionally well at times and becoming a hermit at other times - just struggling to make it through a day. Has anyone in here (the ones suffering from this condition) found a dramatic change in daily behavior by altering their diet? I eat a diet that is high in sugar at times and I am looking at cutting the sugar out. I am curious if anyone else in this forum has found a diet with too much sugar leads to increased levels of depression or higher peaks and lower valleys. I would prefer to hear from individuals that have been exposed to depression or suffer themselves. In other words I am looking for more information than simply sugar gives you a sugar rush followed by a feeling of tiredness.

Thanks in advance.

2

Recognize your pattern. Don’t think I can lmake a link between my bouts of depression and sugar, but some sources do:

Common causes of depression are known to result from chemical imbalances in the brain. Abnormal brain chemicals include the neurotransmitters 5-HT (5-hydroxytryptamine, known as serotonin), norepinephrine and dopamine. In addition, certain proteins that are responsible for recognizing these neurochemicals are known to be abnormal. These receptor proteins are the target for a number of drugs that have proven effective in alleviating the symptoms of depression, such as Prozac or Zoloft. These certain chemical imbalances that result in depression may occur from hypoglycemia or other sugar imbalance, sugar or alcohol dependency, food allergies, glandular imbalance of high levels of copper, drug abuse, hypothyroidism, negative emotions, excessive stress, or the side effects of prescribed medications.

3

I have always shyed away from taking Prozac but I am beginning to believe it may be something I need to take. I look at my Dad and I see a man that has suffered depression his whole life and has never seeked help for it. I would hate to do the same.

4

From a nutritional point of view the obvious would be a deficiency in the vitamin B complex, which is fairly unlikely. There is also research supporting a deficiency in the omega-3 fatty acid, linolenic acid. Good sources of this are soybeans, canola oils, flaxseeds and walnuts.

It is believed the herb St. John’s Wort may be helpful in treating mild depression.

I’m not aware personally of any research liking high sugar directly with depression, but there are many other good reasons to abandon a high sugar diet.

5

If you decide to take meds, make sure to go to a specialist. Your regular doc will give you the drugs of the company whose rep visited them most recently and dropped of a bunch of meds. Even so, it remains a process of trial and error to find out the right prescription and dose.

6

my family, myself incuded, have a history or chronic mild depression. I suffered from a horrible episode last year that I am just now getting over with. I have learned to cope with it without drugs. I honestly don’t think i could ever take prozac although it is a personal choice. Diet does effect mood. Make sure you get enough vitamins and never, ever go on a low carb diet. It has been linked to moodiness and mild depression in many studies. Also lots of sugar probably does not help at all. I personally have noticed that sugar tends to make me fatguied. The two biggest things that help are exercising and being outdoors in a natural setting. (usually done simaltaniously) If you have any more questions, feel free to send a PM

7

I too had a bout of depression. My employer closed the doors and move to Mexico. Because of this we had an opportunity to go back to college and get further education to help find a better job. I threw my all into my classes with the idea that if I graduated with a 4.0 grade point ave I would get hired by the best company in the area. I stopped running because my time was put into studying. I put anywhere from 10 to 14 hours at a time in studying for exams(straight hours) I was very obsessive. After four months of this I started having physical problems, buzzing in my ears, dizziness and depression. My doctor gave me a prescription for Prozac and my daughter encouraged me NOT to take it. I did not. I actually had to push myself out the door each evening to just walk in the fresh air. I would take my son and go walking. It was very frightening. However, as each day went by it got better. Soon I started back running and that helped a great deal. I started back running with my friends who I had shied away from during this ordeal. During this 4 months, my diet consisted of coffee(tons)and very little good food. So I am sure that had a lot to do with my physical and mental being.

8

My dad suffers from anxiety disorder among other things, and I’m pretty sure I’m midly depressed. I’ve never been diagnosed, but the more I research it the more I identify with the symptoms. But anyways, I vaguely remember a book my dad was reading on how to naturally cure these types of “disorders.” I think it was called something like Potatoes instead of Prozac. Basically it discussed how changes in your diet can drastically reduce symptoms, and possibly cure. I think for a significant change to be made it will take more than forum advice, I recommend checking out some books.

9

Thanks everyone.

Jets - I find what you wrote very interesting. Although you “cured” your condition naturally, do you think you would have benefited from the Prozac? Perhaps you would have gotten to the destination of happiness faster?

10

I believe that diet can be an influencing factor in people susceptible to depression. I have my own story re depression and being on drugs on and off for years but have been off everything now for 3 years but I may go into that later .

My understanding is like this: if your life is perfect and you are truly happy, then if your diet goes out the wall and you start eating shitty take away or high sugar foods, then it is unlikely that this will be enough to throw you into a depression. However, if you are already depressed, you may not have the motivation to care for yourself properly, and may eat shitty foods, which due to their effects (hormonal (insulin) lack of nutrients) may make depression worse, or at least not help someone to feel better.

Letsw face it, when you are eating a really good diet (open to interpretation obviously) which IMO is a lot of fresh fruit, vegies wholegrains, lean protiens, seeds and nuts, and little dairy, than you will feel better than when you eat a shitty diet. And anything that makes someone physically feel better or worse, will have a resulting effect on the mood levels of someone be they depressed or otherwise. I don’t think diet “causes” depression except in very rare cases, and in most of these, I beleive it was more of a final straw, that tipped over an already unstable individual.IMO, mental/psychological skills, life "handling " techniques have a much more significant link/impact.

Cheers Benno

11

Adrian-

I have suffered from depression on and off for my whole life. It has taken me a long time to accept that this is a chemical/physiological thing and not that I am choosing to be sad. Accepting this and dealing with it like any other illness has really helped.

Regarding you question, I think the depression causes the unhealthy eating instead of the other way around. When you are depressed your body craves a pick-me up and simple sugar is a quick way to get it.

Other things that I have learned over 15+ years of searching. I never let myself miss more than 1-2 days of exercise. Studies have shown that exercise is in some cases as helpful as anti-depressants. The winter is especially hard and I need to get outside for at least a little bit every day. I eat a really healthy diet, no meat, no fried foods, minimal processed junk, no alcohol, no caffiene. I don’t know if this helps or not, but definitely makes me feel better and healthier and have a more healthy attitude about life.

Finally, sometimes these things are not enough and the brain chemicals are too out of whack. In this case the meds definitely help. It doesn’t have to be a lifetime regiment, just something to get you back on track. PM if you have questions. Like I said, I have struggled with this and feel like I have been pretty successful at managing it.

12

The bigger picture here is that a lack of rhythm is related to depression. Energy moves rhythmically, like a sine wave. Fall in step with it, and you’ll find yourself living a powerful and satisfying life. When we are out of sync with the sine wave, we are using too much of our personal power fighting a force greater than us.

(Some sweeping generalizations)
Keep your house clean.
Keep your bike clean.
Keep your desk clean.
Keep your body clean.
Keep off the synthetics.
Keep a regular diet. (however you choose to define diet)
Keep a schedule to your diet, and you’ll keep your regularity.
Keep consistent with exercise.
Keep time for yourself.
Keep your sobriety.
Keep on keeping on.
Keep in mind that after a long enough time keeping up with everything you can finally let go and be the observer of a luminous wheel you’ve created that has infinite momentum.

Isn’t it weird how if we say, or sub-vocalize, a word (in this case “keep”) enough we begin to question whether it is a word at all?

13

I have been in a deep depression since the middle of June where I witnessed an incident at work that was horrifying to me. I haven’t been able to snap out of it yet. I did compete this summer and was pretty impressed with my results. I have begun to change my diet because I think there may be a link also. I am 5 weeks caffeine free. I have been trying to cut out the sugar but it is a battle. I do feel better when I don’t eat foods with sugar because I don’t feel guilty for eating them. I am hoping after the holidays I can focus on my training and I will emerge from this.

Mike

14

I deal now and then with some mild depression, and one thing that I’ve noticed is that it is often, though not always, related to weather. Dark days, often during the winter, but also sometimes during the summer, start putting me in a funk that can go on for a while. This winter I am experimenting with a light box, and so far it is really helping pretty noticably I think. This might not work for everyone, but it seems worth mentioning. I think that light (or lack thereof) can affect our moods as much as food, if not more. The whole principle here is that if we don’t get enough light, the brain doesn’t produce the serotonin that then impacts your mood. In my case, I noticed that lack of light, even if it is a summer day, tends to trigger the depression that builds on itself for a while. I have no idea whether it will help you, but it is worth considering. So far it is the best $250 I’ve spent.

You can get a little more info here.

http://www.wholehealthmd.com/refshelf/substances_view/1,1525,713,00.html

http://www.northernlighttechnologies.com/winterblues.php

http://www.northernlighttechnologies.com/biology.php

15

rundhc, that is too cool that you got a box. How do you incorporate it into your daily life? I read an excellent book by Dr. Jacob Lieberman, “Light, Medicine of the Future” and it was very, well, enlightening on this subject. I almost got one when I moved to Oregon, but I didn’t stay long so I couldnt justify it. The big thing that has not yet really hit the tipping point is full spectrum lights. They’ll be everywhere by the time I’m 50, consider investing. Artificial lighting is absolutely barbaric in most cases, actually that doesn’t make sense as barbaric people had excellent light. I’ve been trying to talk my employer into buying full spectrum lighting to help the productivity and general sense of well-being of the employees, but he doesn’t dig what I’m trying to say. It comes off as being too new-ageish, especially from me. How far from the equator are you rundhc, or rather, what is your latitude?

Vancouver is at 49.16N, which is pretty far up there Adrian. I’ve been very interested over the past several years with insolation values, which measure the amount of energy on the earth’s surface that is coming from the sun, basically. I don’t have values for Vancouver, but Montreal, which is at 45.28N would at least give an idea as to how beneficial a light therapy box could be for you. Once you get past 40.00N or so I’d recommend using light therapy for sure. Anyhow, here is Montreal’s insolation values in kilowatt-hours/m^2/day, starting with Jan and going through Dec. 1.56, 2.52, 3.52, 4.20, 5.64, 5.46, 5.58, 4.86, 3.61, 2.22, 1.34, 1.21, which gives a 3.42 average. I would expect Vancouvers winter months to have somewhat lower values, and the summer months would be about the same. As you can see, in the month of December, where we find ourselves now and at which time you are posting about depression, the sun is only providing Montreal with about 20-25% of what is availabe to draw from during the summer months. That is significant, to say the least. Living in SoCal, my numbers vary from a low of 2.91 to a high of 6.89, with an average of 5.16. I’m probably receiving close to 300% as much solar energy as you are during this month, just because of the environment I’m in. I do believe Dr. Lieberman was right about light being the medicine of the future, and as such would recommend a light therapy box a millionfold times more than prozac. OK, I’ll stop now, as I don’t tend to connect with people on this topic too often, though I could talk about it to infinity.

Hippocrates was a gigantic advocate of heliotherapy, as the poster below mentioned. In fact, he went so far as to proscribe sunlight directly to the genitals, as it is suppose to increase ones vigor and well being. I’m not sure a cop would really care about all that though, so I don’t cruise the streets of my neighborhood naked.

16

Adrian, I noticed you were from Vancouver and I’m assuming there is not much sunlight there this time of year. I agree with the above post, possibly seasonal affective disorder (SAD). One more thing you may want to try is a sun tan machine. I know this sounds weird, and believe me, I know about the damaging affects of the rays, but it really helps many people. I believe the study of this is called heliotherapy and there may be some research on it you can check out. Bottom line is it is not expensive and you’ll know right away if you feel better. Why not just give it a try?

17

This is just my take, but it’s worth experimenting with a light box (instead of a tanning booth) for the simple reason that it doesn’t impact your health (so far as I know) and because you need to do it over a period time to get a sense of whether it works for you. It’s not just a one day deal. I have struggled during the winter for several years now, and my wife pulled the trigger and got one, and it seems to be helping. All I do is sit in front of it for twenty minutes each morning while working on my computer and, so far, so good. I’ve been feeling fine.

18

At first blush, that all sounds a bit trite, but I’d endorse all of it, plus counseling and taking your meds if necessary. I have two family members who have depression and are on
drugs so I’ve seen the ugly side of it. (Regarding “synthetics”, if you mean prescribed drugs, I’d disagree.)

Staying physically active and eating right are probably THE two key ingredients to good mental health, IMHO.

-Robert

19

I’ve dealt with depression for many years. From my experience, I’ve come to believe that craving simple sugars is a symptom, rather than a cause, of certain hormonal imbalances, such as increased Cortisol. Personally, if I don’t exercise for a week or so, I start to feel depressed, and then I start to crave simple sugars. If I do nothing, I end up eating horribly all day, having no desire to exercise, and feeling more and more depressed. To be clear, I’m speaking of depression, not the “I get so bummed when I can’t exercise” feeling. For me, exercise seems to really even me out. It makes me no longer crave simple sugars. I consider it my medication.

20

My daughter and I share a depression cycle. We are both very creative people. After looking at series of events we noticed that the most creative times have been as we are climbing out of the “low”. It runs on a 50-70 day cycle. With some therapy we were able adapt our lives to this and take advantage of this “creative” cycle. Good luck.