Understanding Nutrition, depression, and mental illness
It fascinates me how we all understand that food may cause disease conditions such as high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes and obesity. The effect of a bad diet doesn’t actually stop at these conditions. Why is it so hard for people to understand that the opposite is just as true – that food can prevent disease or illness and even reverse a chronic disease condition. Is it because “wat die oog nie sien nie, maak die hart nie seer nie”? (Translated from Afrikaans: “What the eye doesn’t see, cant hurt the heart”)
I may be wrong, but when it appears as if few people understand the connection between nutrition and depression. If you ask a psychiatrist (I am generalising), depression might be described as a chemical imbalance or emotionally-rooted condition. Research has shown that nutrition can play a key role in the onset, severity and duration of depression and that the same food patterns or eating behaviour that precede depression occur during depression, namely poor appetite, skipping meals and a dominant desire for sweet foods. Nutrigenomics is an emerging discipline revealing new information on the effect of food and the environment on human cognition, behaviour, emotions, and health. If you know a little about chemistry, you may understand that food becomes chemical messengers once digested, meaning they have the power to change chemical processes in your body, switch genes on and off and have and effect of a physiological process.
Depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are common mental disorders in most countries. It was shown that the dietary intake of the general population who suffered from these conditions was deficient in essential vitamins, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids. Addressing nutritional deficiencies in people suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, attention deficit disorder or ADHD, autism and addiction showed significant improvements in symptoms. It is of cause not the same for each individual as deficiencies depends on various environmental and genetic factors.
Depression is associated with symptoms such as increased sadness, anxiety, loss of appetite, depressed mood, and a loss of interest in activities that used to be enjoyable. Food choices may affect the production of certain neurotransmitters, leading to risky, impulsive, or aggressive behaviour or even inwardly directed impulsive aggression.
The most common nutritional deficiencies seen in patients with mental disorders are omega-3 fatty acids, B-vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, which are precursors to neurotransmitters.
Like everything else, it is never that simple and there are other physiological and psychosocial factors that also need to be considered:
· Age – the elderly are vulnerable, they often experience unintentional weight loss due to poor dentition, multiple prescription drugs, poor taste and smell and other environmental and social factors, leading to nutritional deficiencies and increased morbidity.
· Gut-brain axis – if digestion is not optimal or one suffers from gastro-intestinal symptoms, it will most certainly interfere with the production of neurotransmitters and the assimilation of nutrients, meaning even if you then do get some nutrition in, it may not have the benefit you hoped for.
· Substandard living conditions – people unable to afford or get fresh foods.
The condition is certainly complex and cannot be treated by throwing a handful of supplements at it. It needs to be firstly recognised, diagnosed, and then only treated and although drug therapy is always the first choice due to possible consequences of the condition, I would like to urge those suffering from a mental disorder to consider changing their lifestyle and habits.
Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 2008 Apr-Jun; 20(2): 77-82