For most people, the unmistakable feeling of sadness, loneliness, and thoughts of suicide can be crippling–but few realize these are common signs of a depressive disorder. Worse yet, people often go years without treatment either due to misdiagnosis or fear of being stigmatized, something that could harm their mental and physical health in the long run.
However, researchers now say there may be a way to stop depression without ever setting foot inside a doctor’s office–by changing your diet.
“Our study is the first to observe an association between an inflammatory prone dietary pattern (derived from reduced-rank regression) and depression risk,” say researchers, whose study was published in the February issue of Brian, Behavior, and Immunity, a health journal. “We used a strict definition of depression that required both self-reported physician-diagnosed depression and use of antidepressants, and a broader definition that included women who reported either clinical diagnosis or antidepressant use.”
Conducting the study for a total of 12 years, researchers first began the study by recruiting more than 40,000 women between the ages of 50 to 77–an age group often more susceptible to depressive disorder. They then asked them to fill out a food frequency questionnaire, which they filled out on a regular basis between 1984 and 2002.
After the study ended, researchers noticed two troubling correlations: Nearly 3,000 women developed depression, and for those who did, they were more likely to eat an inflammatory diet.
“During the 12-year follow-up, we documented 2594 incident cases of depression using the stricter definition and 6446 using the broader definition,” say researchers. “The inflammatory dietary pattern is associated with a higher depression risk. This finding suggests that chronic inflammation may underlie the association between diet and depression.”
As for how much it increased their depression risk, the numbers were significantly high–researchers say they faced up to a 41 percent higher risk than those who ate a non-inflammatory diet. Inflammatory foods often include foods the USDA recommends limiting, including red meat, refined grains, bagels, and soda.
“To account for the fact that people may eat more of the not-so-healthy comfort foods when they are feeling blue, the study only included women who had no prior history with depression,” says Jessica DeCostole, a health contributor to KnowMoreTV. “And while there’s more research that needs to be done to pinpoint a clear connection, for now scientists speculate that the pro-inflammatory nature of these foods are what’s triggering depressive symptoms.”
Your best solution here? To avoid depression, clean up your diet–red meat, soda, and refined grains should be kept to a minimum to reduce the risk of inflammation. Better yet, you’re better off eating a diet rich in all of the “good stuff” as well, such as vegetables, fruits, and whole wheat products. You’ll also lose weight as well–a common risk factor for depression and inflammation.
Readers: Do certain foods make you feel more depressed?
Sources:
Study: Inflammatory Diet Increases Risk of Depression – ScienceDirect.com
This Diet Makes You More Depressed, According to Researchers – HuffingtonPost.com
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