How you can grow new little grey cells
... and it could help tackle depression and anxiety without a need for medication
THE Age of Anxiety was a term coined in the 1940s to describe the fraught and changed world after the war, but now with Russia’s attack on Ukraine, energy bills soaring and so much economic uncertainty, it feels like an apt description of our current turbulent times.
The trouble is, although mental health problems such as depression and anxiety are on the rise (and have been for years), the treatments haven’t really changed.
If your symptoms are serious you will probably be offered medication and perhaps psychological therapies. But many people don’t want to take pills, and therapy isn’t for everyone.
But there is good news, as recently highlighted in Nature, a leading science journal, with promising research exploring possible causes — and treatments. These include:
PRESS-UPS AND FASTING
WHEN I was at medical school we were told that adults don’t grow new brain cells, so we should look after the ones we have (I thought at the time that this was a subtle dig at the culture of medical students drinking and destroying their brain cells).
But during the 1990s, when researchers started doing post- mortem human brain studies they found signs of new cell growth in brain areas such as the hippocampus, which helps
regulate mood and memory. So we do go on creating new brain cells, even into old age, in a process known as neurogenesis.
But more recently, brain scans have shown that chronic stress alters this delicate balance, accelerating the death of existing brains cells, while slowing the growth of new ones. This not only spells trouble for things such as memory, it’s thought it could also be a trigger for depression and anxiety (though exactly how is unclear).
This could also help explain how some antidepressants work, as we know they can trigger cell growth in the hippocampus and other brain areas. One of the ways they do this is by stimulating the release of a chemical called BDNF, which acts like fertiliser for the brain.
There are drug-free methods to help boost BDNF and therefore the growth of new brain cells, including resistance exercise and intermittent fasting. The best form of resistance exercise for boosting BDNF seems to be press-ups and squats, because they lead to big surges in blood to the brain, which in turn encourages more BDNF. That is one reason I do at least 30 squats and press-ups most mornings.
As for intermittent fasting, both time-restricted eating (where you only eat within a reduced time window, such as from 10am to 8pm) and the 5:2 method (where you dramatically reduce calorie intake for two days a week) have been shown to boost BDNF.
A ZAP TO THE BRAIN
ANOTHER way to boost your mood could be to stimulate your brain with small electric shocks. The more radical version of the electric shock approach is called deep brain stimulation (DBS), which involves implanting electrodes deep inside the brain in areas that regulate your mood.
DBS was developed to treat the tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease, and when it works it is impressive. While it doesn’t have quite as impressive an impact on depression, an analysis of 17 studies, published last year in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, concluded that it worked in more than half of cases of depression resistant to other treatments. A far less invasive approach is to deliver weak electrical currents to specific parts of the brain via electrodes attached to the scalp — this is said to suppress a type of brainwave that’s more common in people with depression.
In a 2019 study by the University of North Carolina, 32 patients with severe depression were treated in this way and when they were retested after a couple of weeks, 70 per cent reported markedly improved symptoms.
LIGHT THERAPY
IF YOU don’t fancy electric shocks, what about light therapy? Your body runs on an internal clock that tries to keep your body in sync with the world around you.
At the start of the day it is exposure to bright morning light that resets your internal clock and gets you ready for the day.
But with the arrival of artificial light, these days we spend too much time indoors and stay up late, which is bad for our body clocks and our brains — and our mood, as it affects the production of hormones that help regulate it.
An immediate way to boost your mood is to go for a brisk 20-minute walk first thing in the morning, which will help reset your body clock. Or you could try 30 minutes in front of a SAD lamp, a light box that produces 10,000 lux (a measure of light intensity), similar to a bright summer’s day and around 50 times more intense than you would get indoors.
In a small study published in July, researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland allocated 22 women with severe post-natal depression to either 30 minutes a day of bright-light therapy (10,000 lux) or dim red light (the control group) for six weeks: 73 per cent of the women given bright- light therapy were no longer depressed at the end of the study, compared to 27 per cent in the control group.
AVOID JUNK FOOD
AT LEAST half the average Briton’s calories now come from ultra-processed junk food (the sort of food that comes in bright packages with a long list of strange-sounding ingredients) — and there is a good chance that it’s having a bad effect on our brains.
In a recent study researchers at Florida Atlantic University surveyed more than 10,000 people about eating habits and mental health and found that the more junk food people ate, the more likely they were to report ‘mentally unhealthy’ or ‘anxious’ days.
This follows a seminal study, published in 2017, by Australian researchers where people who were moderately or severely depressed went on a healthier Mediterraneanstyle diet — after a couple of months, around a third were able to come off medication.
Why is highly processed food so bad for the brain? As well as being full of salt, sugar and fat, it tends to be low in fibre and essential vitamins, which leads to chronic inflammation throughout the body, including the brain. This in turn seems to lead to the rewiring of neural circuits, triggering depression or anxiety.
EAT MARMITE
ONE vitamin that seems to be important for mood is vitamin B6, which is found in tuna, salmon, fortified cereals and one of my favourite spreads: Marmite.
A recent study by the University of Reading found that B6 in large doses helped reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in young people. To get a decent dose of vitamin B6, marinate salmon fillets in a mix of Marmite, soy sauce, honey and chilli. Sounds terrible, but it works!
AS OLIVE branches go, it’s very victoria Beckham. After months of speculation about frosty relations with her son Brooklyn’s new in-laws, he and his wife Nicola have been invited to victoria’s Paris Fashion Week show at the end of the month. ‘everyone is invited, including Brooklyn and Nicola,’ i’m told. ‘Although it’s not definite yet that they will come.’
All concerned are hoping the newlyweds will attend and that the families will be reunited — not least because the fall- out between them has caused the Beckhams a great deal of pain.
As first revealed in this paper, an icy silence has descended between Nicola and her mother-in-law victoria.
Starting from the wedding in April, the pair have pointedly failed to like each other’s posts on social media. They have spent time together only once, on a night out in italy in July.
Brooklyn and Nicola enjoyed weeks on holiday with the Peltz family on their yacht this summer — and skipped the Beckhams’ yacht holiday completely. They then spent more time with the Peltzes in Florida.
Since then, there has been a volley of accusations, with claims that victoria hijacked the bride and groom’s wedding dance and that Nicola had no intention of wearing a dress by victoria as, woundingly, she knew designers who were ‘actually talented’.
These tensions, which came to a head during the wedding, remain high. on one side, you have besotted Brooklyn, who has an enormous ‘Peltz’ tattoo across his chest and keeps adding more inky tributes to his wife — apparently each one makes her weep because she is so in love with him.
On the other, you have the Beckhams, who feel their son has been completely absorbed by his wife’s large, wealthy family.
Nelson Peltz, a feared corporate raider whose firm is the largest shareholder in the Wendy’s burger chain, is said to be bringing Brooklyn even further into the fold by financially backing his forthcoming commercial venture into the hot chilli sauce business.
To Nicola’s delight, aspiring chef Brooklyn defers to Nelson (quite sensibly) for career advice.
She told Tatler this summer: ‘ Brooklyn is getting into very exciting things with his shows and also business things and it’s really sweet. i watch him call my dad and say: “What do you think about this?” i love watching him learn from my dad.’
A Beckham source says: ‘The Peltz family can offer him things which they [the Beckhams] cannot in terms of commercial connections. David and victoria have been deeply upset by how things have played out.
‘They are worried that Nicola is going to hurt Brooklyn. They feel that the relationship is unbalanced. He makes a lot of sacrifices for her but it’s not clear what happens in return. But you know, as victoria says: “He’s just gaga about that girl.” ’
The former Spice Girl may have risen to fame with the mantra Girl Power, but it seems this is one situation which she has no power to fix — at least not by wading in and opening her mouth.
‘it’s a waiting game,’ says the source. ‘ She is doing nothing about it — she would be stupid to even try.’
How different the picture was when Brooklyn and Nicola started dating at the end of 2019.
From the start, David and victoria thoroughly approved of Nicola, the savvy youngest child of a billionaire family (Nelson is worth £1.3 billion).
She was a guest of honour at Brooklyn’s 21st birthday party in March 2020, dancing the night away with victoria, who wrote of Nicola on instagram: ‘We love you so much!’
Nicola, four years older than Brooklyn, had already found a career while he was struggling to make it as a photographer and model, having already decided against following his father into football. By contrast, Nicola had tasted some success, starring in Transformers: Age of extinction,
‘He’s spending all his time with her family. It’s Peltz, Peltz, Peltz’
and was a steadier influence than some of his previous romances (his liaison with model Hana Cross was very stormy.)
The couple became engaged in July 2020, just as the first pandemic lockdown in the UK was lifting.
Nicola posed for pictures in a canary yellow victoria Beckham dress and victoria penned a gushing welcome on instagram ‘The MOST exciting news!! We could not be happier. Wishing you so much love and a lifetime of happiness. We all love you both so much x.’
But i’m told by a well-placed friend that the cracks started to appear soon afterwards, when the Beckhams were invited to meet Nelson and Claudia Peltz at their £76 million home in Palm Beach, Florida. in normal circumstances, this would have happened before the engagement — but the pandemic meant that it didn’t.
The source says: ‘When they first went to the Peltz house, the Beckhams sent their security team in advance to sweep the place.
‘it is standard procedure when you are a couple at this level of fame, but it did not go down well
‘Nicola’s mum isn’t at all intimidated by Victoria’
with the Peltz family. They have their own security, of course, and naturally it is the best that money can buy, so there was no need for their visitors to do this. it raised eyebrows. The feeling was that the Beckhams were somehow saying that they were more important than the Peltzes. it was a simple mis- step, but a bad start.’
Thoughts then turned to wedding planning.
The Beckhams were interested in having weddings on both sides of the Atlantic, with a celebration at their house in the Cotswolds — as they did for Brooklyn’s 21st — plus one in America.
The Peltzes, as is traditional, wanted to have just one wedding at their immense house in Florida, complete with its own jetty and beach.
Claudia Heffner Peltz, a titanium socialite and former top model, firmly took charge, and made a number of decisions — including that there would just be one wedding. She’s had years of experience hosting mega-budget parties and charity events — a bar
mitzvah she threw for her twin sons at the St Regis in New York is said to have cost £2 million.
At the outset, Nicola had said that she wanted her mum to be her wedding planner, recalling in an interview with Wonderland
magazine this week: ‘My mom was such a big help in my wedding.’
One of the first and biggest questions was who would design
the dress. As Nicola has said, Victoria Beckham had offered to do the honours.
Recollections vary about what happened next. Nicola said that it
became clear that what she wanted was beyond what her mother- in- law’s atelier was able to deliver. Some other sources think that Nicola was
never really serious about taking Victoria up on the offer.
It would be no surprise if Nicola, a full-on fashionista, had had her heart set on the couture experience for this, the biggest dress of her life.
By September 2021, she was visiting Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino in Rome with her mother Claudia and her stylist in attendance, being fitted for her dream dress. At this point, there was an assumption by many of Victoria’s friends that one of the bride’s other outfits would be by Victoria, who is known for her tailored trouser suits.
But while Nicola did wear a trouser suit on the eve of her wedding, it was not a Victoria Beckham creation, but one by Dior.
Nor did Victoria get a look in at the post-wedding party, when Nicola opted to wear a Versace mini-dress.
To make matters worse, Nicola spoke in flattering terms about both designers to Vogue magazine, failing to mention at any point in the interview that her future mother-in-law was a successful designer herself.
As for the mother of the bride, Claudia Peltz wore Versace throughout.
Perhaps no slight was intended, but the publicity felt
like rather a slap around the face for Mrs Beckham.
I’m told: ‘ This all started because Claudia was in the driving seat over the wedding and it put Victoria into a rage.
‘Victoria is used to people being intimidated by her, she’s been famous for 25 years and is deferred to a lot, but Mrs Peltz didn’t seem to be impressed in the slightest.’
Another apparent source of tension was Victoria’s habit of posting online pictures of herself cosied up to her future daughter-in-law.
Claudia’s view, apparently, was that it was time for this overly clingy and interfering mother to fade into the background and let her girl shine.
In the end, Victoria’s only input into the wedding seems to have been that the guests should be offered a ‘light’ menu option.
The Beckhams also chose their friend, DJ Fat Tony, to provide a set at the wedding, and are thought to have paid for both this and a performance by the singer Marc Anthony, who is also a pal.
In addition, the Beckhams were absent from the top table. It caused some confusion as at an English wedding the top table would include both the bride and groom’s parents — but at this American wedding the Beckhams hosted their own table of friends.
‘Victoria would have liked to have been on the top table,’ I’m told.
The day itself went off well enough. Reports suggesting that
‘Each side suspects that the other has been leaking stories’
‘Brooklyn is madly in love. Nobody can talk sense into him’
Victoria stole the first dance from the bride are inaccurate, as are reports that singer Marc Anthony upset Nicola by giving a long speech about Mrs Beckham.
But the damage had been done, with the Beckhams feeling puzzled that they had been seemingly sidelined from the life of their adored eldest son.
There are also suggestions that the Peltz family are rather surprised that Brooklyn hasn’t had more of an education. He dropped out of his university course in photography at the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York after only a year.
I’m told: ‘ A level of mistrust exists which means that each side suspects, wrongly, that the other has been leaking stories in recent weeks. The Beckhams are both really hurt, particularly David. They want to be there for Brooklyn, they always thought he would be a big part of their lives for ever. Now they don’t even speak as often as they would like. It has come as a real shock.
‘The only plus is that problems have brought Victoria and David closer together. They discuss it endlessly. They know that Brooklyn is madly in love with Nicola and you can’t fight that.
‘ Nobody can talk any sense into him. He’s spending all his time with her family — it’s all Peltz, Peltz Peltz.’
Indeed, Brooklyn continues to gush over Nicola on Instagram. ‘Words can’t describe how proud I am of you,’ he writes. ‘I love you so much.’
Occasionally, though, he cooks. On August 19 he shared footage of himself making a ‘spicy chicken parm’. His father wrote: ‘When u gonna make us one?’
When indeed?