Diet Depression and Weight Loss - Step12.com

Diet Depression Weight Loss
Review by: Dallas Bowman, http://www.step12.com
Intimate Relationship of Depression Diet Inflammation Weight Loss
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Mounting evidence indicates that Diet Depression Weight Loss and Inflammation may play a significant role in the development of depression. Patients with depression exhibit increased inflammatory markers, and administration of cytokines and other inflammatory stimuli can induce depressive symptoms.

One primary source of inflammation in depression appears to be adiposity. Adipose tissue is a rich source of inflammatory factors in relationship between adiposity and depression has been revealed.

Adiposity is associated with the development of depression, reflecting a potential vicious cycle between these two conditions which appears to center around inflammation. Treatments targeting this vicious cycle may be especially relevant for the treatment and prevention of depression as well as its multiple comorbid disorders such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, all of which have also been associated with both depression and inflammation.

An overwhelming amount of evidence indicates that depressed patients exhibit increased markers of innate immune system activation and inflammation. A recent meta-analysis has revealed that the proinflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor is also increased in patients with major depression.

In many ways this is parallel to what is referred to as sickness behavior in animals, which represents an adaptive response to acute infection and other sources of inflammation such as wounding.

The link between inflammation and depression may explain the frequent association between medical illnesses and depression. While there are many medical conditions associated with increased rates of depression, the majority of these illnesses are also associated with increased inflammation, including not only infectious diseases and cancer but also cardiovascular disease and diabetes, both of which are now recognized to have an inflammatory component.

Obesity as an inflammatory state -- Diet Depression Weight Loss

The increase in obesity in adults has been paralleled in children and adolescents, along with an increase in inflammation and inflammatory diseases previously thought to occur mostly in adults: type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and dyslipidemia.

White adipose tissue (WAT) is the main location for long-term fat storage in the body. WAT, particularly in the abdomen, is the main contributor to metabolic diseases. Thus, chemokines and cytokines produced by WAT may contribute to immune activation, potentially causing or exacerbating diseases associated with inflammation such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression.

Depression may increase risk by changes in diet, eating behavior, and inactivity. lternatively, baseline obesity may increase risk for depression via increases in inflammation as well as cultural aspects of beauty.

Obesity negatively impacts self-esteem based on cultural aspects of beauty and desirability.
Obesity also may contribute to risk for depression via effects on physical activity, sleep, and eating behavior.

Diet and depression

Diets in much of the world have shifted to high carbohydrates and a reduction in omega-3 (n-3) (unsaturated) compared with omega-6 (n-6) (saturated) fatty acids. The intake of fish and other sources of n-3 fatty acids appear to be somewhat protective from certain metabolic conditions, and epidemiological studies have associated an increased relative intake of fish with a reduced risk for depression.

However, it does not seem to be primarily intake of fish per se, but so-called fatty fish with high n-3 concentration (eg, anchovy, sea bass, carp, dogfish, eel, halibut, herring, mackerel, mullet, fish, roe, salmon, sardine, trout, and tuna) that lend protection against both metabolic diseases and depression.

Primary Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic...
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