Depression, Dyslexia, Schizophrenia, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), ADHD, and a host of other mental disorders share some common threads. Most depression information characterizes these disorders by abnormalities in neurotransmitter profiles. Like autism spectrum disorders, the origins and causes of depression, as well as most of these other imbalances, can be traced to where many neurotransmitters are manufactured and absorbed – the digestive tract.
Certain research suggests a strong correlation between depression and diet. For example, one scenario that induces depression is a condition known as fructose malabsorption. Research scientist Maximilion Ledochowski has done extensive clinical work to better understand the dynamics of this condition. Fructose malabsorption, Ledochowski estimates, is present in at least a third of the adult population and is perhaps twice as prevalent amongst children.
Whether or not a person is absorbing fructose properly can be easily ascertained by administering a hydrogen breath test. When not absorbed, byproducts of fermentation are easily picked up by the meter.
With the patients that have failed this test, Ledochowski has drawn blood to check nutrient levels for other possible dietary causes of depression. Reliably, no matter what diets or supplements are present, fructose malabsorbers have low serum levels of zinc, folic acid, and the amino acid tryptophan.
This link between depression and diet is key because zinc has many dynamic interrelationships with other minerals. Folic acid is of course one of the key nutrients that expecting mothers commonly take to avoid birth defects that stem from the neural tube. But as it pertains to mental disorders, the low level of tryptophan tells quite a story.
Tryptophan is the amino acid precursor to perhaps the most dominant of all neurotransmitters in the body – serotonin. Serotonin is a feel-good chemical that we can’t experience happiness without. Low levels of serotonin are almost always one of the prior causes of depression. Furthermore, abnormalities with serotonin, or the neurotransmitter dopamine, which exists on somewhat of an axis with serotonin, are associated with virtually every known mental illness. Although the science is quite complex, Ledochowski has noted that the incidence of depression, specifically, is significantly higher amongst the fructose malabsorbers.
Fascinatingly, pooperstar Mark Pimentel, the head of the gastroenterology department at Cedars-Sanai in Los Angeles, has noted that amongst fructose malabsorbers, there is bacterial overgrowth of the small intestine. Accompanying bacterial overgrowth are huge surges of serotonin production in the digestive tract. This serotonin formation depletes tryptophan levels while simultaneously shutting down receptor sites when large quantities are thrust into the system.
This suggests a very close link between diet and depression, addiction, and the list goes on. Common depression information from several cutting-edge authors indicate that closure of serotonin receptor sites is hugely significant, as it will make a person feel neurotic, depressed, edgy, and any number of negative emotions even when serotonin levels are perfectly normal.? After depletion of tryptophan, matters simply get worse. And because of the high that eating fructose gives to those who are fructose malabsorbers, many become addicted to sugar and sweets, foods that are causing them trouble in the first place. The process spirals down from there. Worse still, neurotransmitter profiles can be passed from mother to child, and this problem can keep snowballing from generation to generation, making kids increasingly neurotic, odd, unhappy, hyperactive, and addicted to foods and substances that spike serotonin, namely drugs, alcohol, and sugar.
With this shocking link between diet and depression, it’s no wonder that the illness is so common.Of course, consumption of refined sugar, and therefore fructose is at an all time high by a long shot. The average American, for example, consumes upward of 150 pounds of added refined sugar per year, not including natural sources rich in fructose such as juices and fruit – the consumption of which has also increased. And table sugar, which is 50% fructose by weight, is being replaced by high-fructose corn syrup, which has even more fructose. Even worse – the use of pure crystalline fructose by the American food industry has seen a 100-fold increase in just the past 25 years.
This is a problem, but there is a solution. Stick around at www.180degreehealth.com, and you too will be saying, ?fruc fructose?. Read’some of 180’s?depression information to learn more about how? mental conditions can be prevented and overcome. Alterations in diet can be more powerful than any drug, and actually heal the problem, setting you free.