Major Types Of Depression
Vitamin And Nutrient Treatments For Depression
While depression is often treated with pharmaceutical antidepressants and psychological therapies, it is important to understand that sometimes nutritional therapies can be of great help to depressed children as well.
A review of studies exploring the link between nutrition and depression was conducted and published in 2008. The review examined the following nutrients:
·Carbohydrates,
Researchers ultimately found that folate, as well as B-vitamins, appeared to be closely related to depression and their intake seemed to have an impact on the symptoms and development of the disorder. The other nutrients reviewed were not found to be closely related to depression in any significant way, nor did their intake have an apparent effect on depression symptoms or development.
Overall, the studies under review demonstrated that nutritional treatment and supplementation can play a significant role in controlling symptoms associated with bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, autism, ADHD, and addiction. It is thought that this kind of nutritional treatment is perhaps especially effective in patients sensitive to side effects because nutritional treatments do not generally come with the side effects that antidepressants and other medications so often do.
How Homocysteine May Affect Depression
Previously, we mentioned a connection between high levels of homocysteine and the development of cerebral vascular disease and/or neurotransmitter deficiency, which cause depression.
Lets dive deeper into that.
The dangers of high levels of homocysteine come from its toxicity to blood vessels and neurons. Additionally, homocysteine may lead to breakage of DNA strands, as well as oxidative stress and apoptosis, which is programmed cell death.
But where does homocysteine come from?
SAMe is an intermediary of the methionine-homocysteine metabolic pathway. It is along this pathway that methyl groups are produced for the synthesis of catecholamines and DNA.
For reference:
Catecholamines help the body respond to stress or fright, prepare it for fight-or-flight reactions, and regulate the heartbeat, breathing rate, as well as other physiological functions. Epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine are catecholamines.
Back to homocysteine:
This amino acid is synthesized from methionine obtained through your diet using the process of demethylation, or the removal of a methyl group from a molecule. Homocysteine can be re-methylated back to methionine, in which folate and Vitamin B12 act as cofactors of the process. It can also go through the process of transsulfuration to become cysteine and glutathione, which requires Vitamins B6 and B12 to act as cofactors.
Now:
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Major Types Of Depression One Can Deal With
Vitamins for depression are essential. However, its essential to understand the different types of depression based on their cause and symptoms. Following are the five major kinds of depression one can deal with.
- major depressive disorder
- premenstrual dysphoric disorder
- depressive disorder due to another medical condition
Depression problems are treated with prescription and natural therapy. Individuals usually ask for rapid treatments, for which they intake antidepressant medication without even knowing their side impacts.
However, vitamins for depression, on the other hand, are effective for controlling mental health conditions and an active mood disorder.
Will Vitamin D Improve My Mental Health
Vitamin D isnt a mental health get out of jail free card, but it could be related to a certain mental health condition – Seasonal Affective Disorder.
SAD is a mental health condition that means that you suffer from depression during certain months of the year, usually during winter.
As it usually happens in the colder, darker months of the year, its thought that this condition happens because you arent getting enough sunlight.
This condition is often misunderstood and brushed aside, but the sun plays a bigger part in our health than you may realise, contributing to the production of serotonin and melatonin as well as keeping your body clock in check.
Sunlight is also our primary source of vitamin D, which is created when the UV rays from sunlight hit our skin.
This connection between vitamin D and sunlight has lead to speculation that vitamin D could play a part in SAD and other mental health conditions and although there isnt much evidence to support this at the moment, its still important to make sure youre getting enough of this nutrient every day.
The NHS recommends that adults should take a 10mg supplement of vitamin D every day, especially in Winter.
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Deficiencies Used To Recognize Psychiatric Disorders
For the other B vitamins, the researchers did not elaborate studies on how supplementation may improve depression symptoms. However, the pooled studies showed clear evidence between deficiencies in B vitamins and depression.
In particular, vitamins B1, B3, B6, B9, and B12 are essential for neuronal function and deficiencies have been linked to depression, they wrote.
For example, with B12 , a deficiency of it is quite often noted in patients presenting with depression and higher levels of B12 correlates with improved treatment outcomes, they argued. However, although there is a clear link between depression and vitamin B12, more studies are necessary to establish the direct effects of vitamin B12 in depression.
They also found evidence of B vitamins playing a role in regulating immune responses and, in patients with depression, pro-inflammatory responses, hence, there is an inter-linked relationship between vitamin B, the immune system, inflammation and depression.
The effects of vitamin B on the immune/cytokine network and theirinvolvement in depression
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Can Supplements Help To Boost My Brain Health And Memory
It could be argued that all nutrients help to keep your brain at its best, healthy body healthy mind after all, but if youre looking for something more specific you may consider omega-3.
Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish and, therefore, can be found in cod liver oil as well as other supplements.
This nutrient is made in your body and is found in your cell membranes, where it helps to keep your cells protected.
Because of this, its thought to help support your brain health and your memory as well as other functions in your body, although evidence to support this is currently thin on the ground.
That being said, cod liver oil is also full of vitamin A, so if youre a big fan of that supplement or like eating oily fish, youre still getting some good nutrition out of it.
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Dr Dawn Harper On Signs Of Vitamin B12 And Vitamin D Deficiency
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A research group identified that shortness of a particular vitamin is common among older people and presents an increased risk of developing depression.
Having deficient levels of vitamin B12 correlated to a 51 percent increased likelihood of developing depressive symptoms across a four year period.
Lead author Dr Eamon Laird said: This study is highly relevant given the high prevalence of incident depression in older adults living in Ireland, and especially following evidence to show that one in eight older adults report high levels of low B12 deficiency rates.
There is a growing momentum to introduce a mandatory food fortification policy of B-vitamins in Europe and the UK, especially since mandatory food fortification with folic acid in the US has showed positive results, with folate deficiency or low status rates of just 1.2 percent in those aged 60 years and older.
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What Is The History Behind The Best Supplements For Depression
Modern medicine has come a long way from thousands of years ago. So, how did people manage to overcome mental illnesses in the past? The answer is complementary and alternative medicine. Though, at the time it wasnt considered alternative medicine.
Chinese medical practitioners thousands of years ago would use herbs, nutritional therapy and mind-body exercises to help people suffering from mental illnesses. Europeans would use materials from plants, animals, and minerals as medicine during the late 18th century. They labeled it homeopathy. More than 3,000 years ago, Indians would use compounds of herbs and minerals in the form of Ayurvedic medicine. Native Americans engaged in similar practices.
It would be silly to dismiss modern medicine as a whole. Yet, supplements and vitamins for depression as a whole helped our distant ancestors overcome dark periods in their lives. Complementary and alternative medicine can improve a persons mental health naturally.
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Magnesium And The Brain
In the brain, magnesium helps to regulate the actions of N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptors. These receptors are believed to play an important role in memory formation and learning.
Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter that is important for normal function in the brain. In excess, however, it can cause cells to become overstimulated. This overexcitation of cells ultimately leads to cell death and is linked to conditions such as seizures, stroke, Parkinsons disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimers disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis .
In addition to contributing to these neurological conditions, excessive glutamate activity is also linked to depression and anxiety.
Magnesium blocks the actions of glutamate in the NMDA receptors. If your body is magnesium deficient, it means that few of the NMDA receptors are blocked. This may lead to overexcitation and cell damage. Because of this, it is possible that magnesium may be useful in the treatment and prevention of depression.
Since magnesium plays such an important role in health, a deficiency in this important nutrient could potentially predispose people to a number of different health problems, including depression.
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Whats The Best Herb For Anxiety And Depression
While some herbs, such as rhodiola and chamomile, may be helpful for reducing or managing symptoms in some individuals, there is no best herb for treating anxiety or depression .
Furthermore, even if you find that taking an herbal supplement is helpful, it shouldnt be used in place of a prescribed antidepressant medication.
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How Does It Work
Vitamin D receptors can be found pretty much everywhere in the human body, so the ways in which vitamin D might affect your mood are innumerable. One of those mechanisms could be hormonal, since vitamin D helps regulate testosterone levels and since low testosterone can impair the mood of men and women.
We should remember, however, that correlation is not causation. The observational data, we said, suggests a correlation between depression and low levels of vitamin D, but that doesnt mean that low levels of vitamin D cause the depression. It might be that depressed people go outside less, thus getting less sunlight, thus producing less vitamin D: the depression would then be the cause of the low vitamin D levels, rather than its consequence.
Even if depression is a consequence, not a cause, it doesnt mean that low levels of vitamin D arent also a consequence. People who go outside less get less sunlight but also probably less exercise and we know that exercise benefits mood, both directly and .
The findings on vitamin D are less consistent. One study found an association between depression and seasonal changes in vitamin D, but another study found no effect of supplemental vitamin D on SAD. And compounding the uncertainty, the researchers of both studies stressed that potential confounders were numerous.
Whats The Best Natural Antidepressant Supplement
There is no one best supplement for people with depression. Although some supplements have been shown to benefit certain populations with depression, not everyone will benefit from the same supplements.
Every person with depression has different needs and should work with a healthcare professional to create an individualized care plan, which may or may not involve dietary supplements.
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Therapy: Another Natural Treatment For Depression
Another way to decrease your depression symptoms naturally is through psychotherapy. Therapy can be beneficial on its own or when combined with medications or supplements for depression. It’s a safe treatment that doesn’t interfere with the medications you take or other medical conditions.
In therapy, you can learn relaxation techniques. You can find out how to stop ruminating over sad or distressing circumstances. You can examine your thoughts and choose more helpful ones through cognitive behavioral therapy.
You can talk to a licensed counselor for convenient, private online therapy at BetterHelp.com. If depression is an ongoing problem for you, starting therapy can be just the help you need to feel better. As your mood improves, you can perform better at work, have more satisfying relationships, and live the life that suits you best.
Water Soluble Vitamins For Anxiety
Water-soluble vitamins are extremely important and can be taken on a regular basis to help support mental health and functioning. While vitamin C and a vitamin B complex can help support brain functioning and regulate mood and improve symptoms of stress and fatigue, speak with your doctor before you consider taking them.
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Find Out Which Vitamin And Mineral Deficiencies Can Cause Anxiety
We all experience anxiety throughout our life and there are many reasons as to why stress and anxiety can exist in our everyday lives. The most important thing to remember here is that vitamins and minerals cant make up for conditions that need professional care and help but it can help you a lot.
Do you feel that your anxiety levels are out of control?
If youre feeling depressed, out of energy and anxious in your daily life the answer to the question above is probably yes. These are all symptoms which could be caused by a poor diet and nutritional intake. Being deficient in certain minerals and vitamins can affect your psychical and mental energy, your bodys health along with the biochemical balance in your brain, resulting in anxiety or increasing the levels youre currently experiencing.
1) Energy Production: Vitamin B-1
B vitamins are critical for your bodys energy production, and vitamin B-1 is specifically known for its calming and soothing effect which is why youll hear it being referred to as the anti-stress vitamin. Several studies and extensive research shows that taking 50 milligrams of vitamin B-1 every day helps improve calmness and mood if taken every day for two months you should start to notice the change.
2)Mood hormones: Vitamin B6
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Sample Size And Study Design
It was an individually matched case-control observational study. To extract dietary patterns, 110 patients with depression and 220 healthy individuals were recruited. The participants included 260 female and 70 male . We selected the depressed patients from psychiatric clinic of Baharloo hospital in district 15, Imam Hossein hospital in district 7 and Tehran University student counseling center in district 6 through non-probable convenience sampling. After adjusting for age and sex, healthy individuals were selected from the area of residence of hospital patients and students of Tehran University. The samples selection and data collection were performed during October 2012 to June 2013.
To measure serum folate, vitamin B12, tHcy, Trp, and Trp/CAA ratio a total of 86 individuals were randomly selected from the participants.
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The Top Vitamin Supplements For Depression
Vitamin deficiency is not the first thing you think of when considering the underlying causes of depression.
Doctors and psychiatrists rarely recommend vitamins for depression either.
But clearly, your brain cant operate at its peak when essential nutrients are missing.
A healthy brain is the first line of defense against depression and other mood disorders.
Some vitamins are necessary for the formation of mood-boosting neurotransmitters, while others provide energy to brain cells or protect them from damage.
Heres a look at the most important vitamins for depression and their recommended dosages.
1. Vitamin B6 : A Serotonin Cofactor
Serotonin is the main brain chemical responsible for making you feel happy, relaxed, and confident.
It also plays an important role in sleep, sex drive, and digestive health.
The most prevalent theory of depression is that its caused by a lack of serotonin.
This is why the most commonly prescribed antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors which work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain.
Normally, serotonin is created in the brain and body from tryptophan, an amino acid commonly found in meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products.
You can see that vitamin B6 is used twice in this two-step process, which helps explain the correlation between low blood levels of vitamin B6 and depression.
WHATâS THE BEST BRAIN SUPPLEMENT?
If Youre Considering Self
You can access free support right away with these resources:
- The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Call the Lifeline at 800-273-8255 for English or 888-628-9454 for Spanish, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- The Crisis Text Line. Text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
- The Trevor Project. LGBTQIA+ and under 25 years old? Call 866-488-7386, text START to 678678, or chat online 24-7.
- Veterans Crisis Line. Call 800-273-8255, text 838255, or chat online 24/7.
- Deaf Crisis Line. Call 321-800-DEAF or text HAND at 839863.
- Befrienders Worldwide. This international crisis helpline network can help you find a local helpline.
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