Dealing with depression naturally by Baumel Syd

Author:Baumel, Syd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Depression, Mental, Depression, Mental, Depression, Mental
Publisher: New Canaan, Conn. : Keats Pub.
Published: 1995-02-11T16:00:00+00:00

DEALING WITH DEPRESSION NATURALLY

Yet depressives are more likely to see refined carbohydrates as a solution. Research from MIT,'^ NIMH,'^ and elsewhere has made it abundantly clear that many depressives—in particularly those who have winter depression, premenstrual depression, "atypical" depression or who are alcoholic—compulsively snack on hyperglycemic foods to feel better, to feel less fatigued, less tense, less confused—and less depressed.'^ To the MIT group, these carbohydrate fixes are benign "self-medication"—an instinctive attempt to raise depressingly low brain levels of serotonin (Chapter 11).'^ But to the hypoglycemia doctors, the sweet "fix" only perpetuates in the long run what it medicates for the moment. After all, carbohydrate-craving depressives remain depressed, despite the temporary relief they buy from food.'^ And their habit makes them prey to obesity, tooth decay, malnutrition and other health problems. But get them to give up their "drug" of choice, hypoglycemia doctors claim, and their symptoms gradually fade. Their depressions "disappear almost magically when hypoglycemia is corrected."'^

So, perhaps, do any serotonin deficiencies they may have. High in unrefined complex carbohydrates, the most popular diet for reactive hypoglycemia would likely foster a steady, stable supply of serotonin in the brain. In contrast, the typical high protein, refined-carbohydrate-rich diet of modern Westerners provokes an unstable feast-and-famine serotonin situation in the brain.

Hypoglycemia doctors are not the only ones who vouch for antihypoglycemia diets. Mainstream internist Richard Podell reports: "About 40 percent of my patients whose history suggests a sugar-related problem improve after adopting an antihypoglycemia diet. Most continue to benefit for months or years. Thus I don't believe they are fooling themselves with a placebo effect. "'^<p^^>

For years, psychologists at Texas A & M University have been demonstrating that "a refined sucrose- and caffeine-free diet ameliorates depression and other symptoms such as anxiety and fatigue in selected individuals."'^ In one study, they prescribed an antihypoglycemia diet for four people with symptoms of reactive hypoglycemia or sugar/caffeine intolerance. All improved mark-

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