FIGHTING DEPRESSION WITH FOOD
NEW YORK PSYCHIATRIST DR KELLY BROGAN NO LONGER PRESCRIBES ANTIDEPRESSANTS FOR HER PATIENTS – SHE TREATS THEM WITH NUTRITION AND LIFESTYLE INTERVENTIONS INSTEAD.
Dr Kelly Brogan believes it to be the best way
Ask someone about the cause of depression and chances are their reply will include the words ‘chemical imbalance’, or ‘serotonin deficiency’. Because of this widely held belief, the taking of antidepressant medications to fix the problem appears to be the most obvious solution. Yes, medication may offer some relief, but it will not cure you and it definitely won’t get to the bottom of why you are depressed in the first place. New York-based psychiatrist Dr Kelly Brogan put down her prescription pad years ago after coming to the realisation that nutrition and lifestyle interventions were a far more powerful treatment for depression than medication. She is the author of A Mind of Your Own, which details natural protocols for helping women heal their bodies and reclaim their lives.
Depression, says Dr Brogan, is your body’s way of getting your attention; of letting you know that something isn’t right. ‘If you had a piece of glass in your foot,’ she asks, ‘would you take a painkiller in the hope that it would stop hurting and get better? Of course not. Likewise, taking antidepressants takes away the opportunity to remove the glass and resolve the problem at its source.’
She encourages her patients to view depression as an invitation to take back control. This often entails significant changes to their diet and lifestyle, but for those prepared to take responsibility and put in the effort, the needle moves quickly and dramatically. In her experience, nutrition is the absolute game changer. With our modern Western diets, she says, there is now a mismatch between the evolution of our genes and our lifestyles. The increased consumption of inflammatory foods such as gluten, artificial sweeteners,
processed carbs, refined sugar, GMOs, soy, corn and dairy, and to some extent caffeine and alcohol, has created the perfect storm for the rise of ill health.
To make matters worse, we don’t sleep enough, we don’t move enough, our stress management is poor and our environment is toxic. Did you know that even a short course of antibiotics can disrupt the gut microbiome for a year or more? All of these factors play a role in causing inflammation, which is at the root of chronic disease as well as some mental health disorders. Inflammation predominantly comes from the gut, so in order to heal depression, you need to heal the gut. The good news is we can largely do that with food. ‘My clinical success rates are so high because I recognise that depression is a symptom, not a disease, and I treat the cause: inflammation,’ says Dr Brogan.
Balancing blood sugar is another critically important step towards healing. Dr Brogan explains that sugar impacts our brain in three ways. Firstly, it spikes insulin and harms our gut microbiome, causing inflammation. Secondly, it upsets our hormonal balance by increasing cortisol levels and disrupting the balance of sex hormones. Finally, sugar damages cell membranes and blood vessels. These three factors can all lead to depression. Artificial sweeteners like aspartame are just as bad, she says, as they also confuse hormones and change the microbiome.
Dr Brogan believes basic lifestyle interventions can facilitate the body’s powerful ability to heal itself. She recommends an ancestral/paleo-style diet that includes liberal amounts of healthy fats like coconut oil, ghee and avocado; nuts, seeds and berries; quality-sourced animal proteins and large quantities of leafy greens and cruciferous veggies. Red meat features prominently: researchers found that those who ate less than 3 servings of beef or lamb a week were twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety. The protocol excludes dairy, sugar, gluten and alcohol. After the initial 30 days, which have to be strictly adhered to, Dr Brogan introduces starchy veggies like sweet potato, carrots and butternut. In her experience, women tend to do better when they don’t overly restrict carbs for too long. Another dietary addition she makes after the first 30 days is resistant starch, a prebiotic fibre that feeds the good gut flora and is found in boiled and cooled white potatoes, green bananas and potato starch powder. She found that the inclusion of some healthy carbs keeps the thyroid and hormones happy and can actually help to balance blood sugar.
Curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric), B vitamins and probiotic supplements also form part of her treatment plan, as do sauerkraut and coconut kefir. She suggests minimising and, where possible, eliminating environmental toxins like the chemicals found in cosmetics and household cleaners. Sleep, exercise, exposure to natural sunlight and behavioural techniques promoting relaxation, like meditation or breathing exercises, are important, too.
Dr Brogan says there is compelling science that suggests antidepressants offer no real benefits. An evaluation of published and unpublished data in two metaanalyses demonstrated a nonclinically significant difference between placebos and antidepressants. ‘A placebo effect doesn’t mean you were tricked,’ she says. ‘[Or] that you’re making it up. It means that a complex physiological cascade of events was kicked off by your experience of taking a pill with the promise of relief.’
Millions of people all over the world take antidepressants, despite the fact that long-term studies have repeatedly shown that they worsen the course of mental illness. Unfortunately, the real risks are often not spoken about: liver damage, weight gain, emotional numbness, suicidal thoughts and sexual dysfunction are but a few of the known side effects.
There is a better, more effective way to find healing, says Dr Brogan, one that ‘first, does no harm’. When patients who are already taking antidepressants come to her, she helps them make the necessary changes to their diet and lifestyle before taking them through a careful weaning process. Stopping meds abruptly is dangerous and should never be attempted without medical supervision.