Depression and food
Depression is a silent killer and comes with all sorts of masks. It can strike at any moment and won’t hesitate to bring you down. It’s this low vibrational feeling and when it hits can knock you on your ass, swollen eyed and broken. But is there more to depression then it just being linked to mental illness? Does depression have anything to do with gut health? I’m going to share with you my experiences and then the science behind gut health and mood.
I battle depression. It’s always there lingering right around the corner and hits me when I least expect it, or does it? Last night I couldn’t write because I was suffering from a major depressive state. I haven’t felt like that since last year when going through the beginnings of quarantine. And lately I have been testing a lot of theories about what we eat and how we feel. So last week the doctor had put me on doxy for a possible tick bite, this left my stomach feeling awful and my mood slowly declined over the week. During this time I didn’t take probiotics because I was testing this theory on gut health because recently I have cut out meat, dairy, and gluten. Then the tick bite happened and sent me into a spiral down after taking the antibiotics.a The reason I tell you all this is because our gut biome health is a huge factor in depression. Antibiotics kill the good and bad bacteria in the gut thus leaving my gut health really offset and in a bad way. Taking probiotics helps bring back healthy bacteria in so it can get back to homeostasis.
So without probiotics my mood got darker everyday until finally yesterday evening I just felt everything. The thing is it kept getting more dark and I wasn’t sure why. I tried to put emotions to what I was feeling but it never felt like an emotional experience. I was crying and feeling worst and worst, and all I wanted to do was label why I was feeling this way because normally if I was depressed it would have been because of a trigger or something. This time I tried to put labels and reasons as to why it was happening but they never felt right, instead I was just depressed. Sure I was having emotions, but I was watching the experience happen while also engaging it. I felt off and not just from an emotional standpoint but my brain and gut just felt really low.
After experiencing that yesterday that is when I decided enough of the experiment I need to start focusing on my gut health. so I purchased a high dose 7 day probiotic and this other thing to aid in gut health. Now to test this theory of mine. I allowed myself to see what doing nothing after taking antibiotics would do, and now for the next 7 days I will introduce a high dose probiotic along with a gut boosting serum. I will let you know by next Friday if this has changed my mood and helped my gut.
The reason I am telling you this story because in the past whenever I ate like shit, I felt like shit. If I would go on binges I would find myself a few days later in a down mood. If I ate really great the day before the next day I would have more energy than I’ve had in a long time. That is why I wanted to personally see the link between my nutrition and my mental health. It’s not like I haven’t known this, but my willingness to accept it was the biggest factor. I rejected that my nutrition wasn’t the culprit for my depression or anxiety because I love food so much. I grew up on sugar and junk food and it’s my way of feeling safe. Even though it puts my whole bodies chemistry out of wack.
Now Let’s talk about the science of this because don’t take my word for it let science do the s’plaining.
Our bodies are constantly breaking down and building up and that kind of stress is normal. Now you add outside environmental factors on top of the internal stress and that right there can cause the body to release cortisol. This hormone along with stress can affect your gut health and if that microbiome is imbalanced then that affects your mood. If you have an imbalance in your gut health that can affect your mental health whereas a balanced one can improve your stress resiliency.
Gut Brain health is connected by your vagus nerve (one of your cranial nerves that goes into the body) This connection called the gut-brain axis connects your CNS to your ENS, and any stress can take a toll on your digestion. Along with the vagus nerve playing a huge role in digestion from moving food to digestive enzymes and appetite you also have the gut bacteria breaking down food and helping it route its way to the brain. That is why the Vagus nerve is so important in your overall gut health! If it’s inflamed or the microbiome isn’t balanced that is when you can get the bad bacteria multiplying and causing inflammation. Inflammation can affect your mood and anxiety.
To combat inflammation you can take in pre- and pro- biotic. Pre-biotic would be things like fruits, veggies, and whole grains (FIBER!!!) which is changed into short chain fatty acid. (One in particular is called butyrate, the main source of fuel for gut lining) A pro-biotic would be something like fermented food, yoghurts or kefir. These have the probiotic species in them that support your body and help improve mental health. When your gut is happy then it will produce serotonin a neurotransmitter and a hormone that regulates your mood.
(Side note, I just looked up stimulating the vagus nerve; humming, chanting and gargling help because the vagus nerve is connected to your vocal cords and back of your throat. When I eat I like to hum. Now I know that was my way of trying to stimulate the vagus nerve to assist me in my digestion. It’s crazy how our bodies automatically know what to do to heal right?)
What we learned is gut health is crucial to your mood and health. Our body is so interconnected and feeding it the right things will create a foundation of wealth for your mood. When you don’t give it what it needs to create homeostasis that is when we suffer from dis-ease. So what are you feeding yourself? How do you feel after? Do you see a correlation between when you eat certain foods and mood? Are you being aware of what goes in your body, or practicing mindfulness? The thing is that for the longest time I wasn’t giving it any piece of mind, I would ignore it, deny it, or just not care because it meant that I had to give up all the things I loved. I made the act of giving up donuts and sugar a negative and the continuation of it a positive. (Remember this is how we get rid of any addiction, we need to make the act of quitting a positive, not a negative) It wasn’t until the past month that I truly got serious about my health and what I am doing with my nutrition.
So I want you to spend time watching your food habits. I want you to see how much you eat, when you eat, what you eat and the speed of which you eat. Do you rush everything into your mouth super fast (me.) or do you chew and take your time with it? Are you eating things that are making your tummy happy or do you feel bloated, fatigued, maybe even depressed after the meal? When you talk about changing your habits or changing your life, that should mean food. Food is life, it is how we stay alive, so it should matter what you are eating and how it is affecting you. Same goes for water. We are 70% at least made of water, the less you drink the more acidic you become creating that breeding ground for bad bacteria and viruses and cancers to form. Food is medicine, so what kind have you been taking?
Check out this article for more in depth of an explanation about gut health and mental health!