Role of diet in Depression, suicide and violence

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Role of diet in Depression, suicide and violence

 

_http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/depression.html_

(http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/depression.html)

Introduction

There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that

were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions

are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of

our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature

intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets

are

those featured on these pages.

 

Dietary causes:

Depression: Bran; soya; low intake of red meat; high-carb diet; sugar.

Suicide and violence. High-carb diet; low blood cholesterol; vegetarian diet.

__

 

Introduction

According to the World Health Organisation, depression is one of the most

important diseases in the world. That is reflected in the huge increase in the

prescription of anti-depressive drugs in the UK – now three times as many as

just 12 years ago. Research conducted by the WHO has highlighted the

prevalence of depression in modern society.[1]

 

The research assessed the ten most important disorders in developed

countries. It found that, terms of years lived with disability, major

depression,

termed 'unipolar major depression', clearly turned out to be the most important

disorder. In addition, 'bipolar disorder', a condition in which periods of

depression alternate with periods of mania, ranks sixth on the list. To put

that in context, diabetes was tenth. In respect of lost years due to premature

death, 'unipolar major depression' ranked second only to cardiovascular

diseases.

 

In a further analysis the WHO predicted a clear-cut increase in the relative

importance of depression over the next 20 years.

 

The results of the WHO project underline the importance of depression for

medicine and health politics. This may be surprising for the public and even

for some health professionals, but not for depressed people and those familiar

with the disorder. Depression is the most frequent psychiatric disorder and

affects wellbeing in a more fundamental way than other disorders. Depression

is a life-threatening disorder. Many depressed people want to die; 15% of

people with severe depression commit suicide.

Cut the carbs

Are you feeling tired or depressed? You've all seen the adverts on TV for

pick-me-ups perhaps in the late afternoon: eat a biscuit, chocolate bar or other

source of sugar. These advertisements rely on people's belief that a

resulting rush of sugar into the bloodstream will give you a mental boost, that

it

will make you feel good and make you more alert.

 

There have been many studies of the effects of these different meal patterns

and different foods. Some tested and measured subjective things such as

fatigue, vigour, anger, hostility, confusion, anxiety and depression. In all of

these tests, those who ate carbohydrate-based meals reported worse scores in

all classes except anxiety, where there was no difference. In other, objective

tests of alertness, auditory and visual reaction times, and vigilance,

carbohydrate eaters again came off worse.

 

There is certainly evidence that eating sugar or other carbohydrate foods

has the ability to improve your mood. The role that glucose is known to play in

supplying the cells of the body with energy has led to the assumption that

an enhanced source of metabolic energy is associated with feeling subjectively

more alert and energetic. But in fact, much of the evidence is that

consuming carbohydrate has a hypnotic effect. In other words, it makes you feel

good

by making you more relaxed and sleepy, rather than more alert. This is the

reason why many dieticians recommend a carbohydrate meal in the evening – it

helps you sleep.

 

But with depression, if you are tired, you really don't feel like doing

anything: it's an effort to get up, work, play, interact with people, get

meals,

and so on. And under these conditions, carbohydrate meals have exactly the

opposite effect from what you might expect. They make you relaxed and slow your

reaction times; protein/fat meals make you feel awake, bright, alert and

quick-thinking and, crucially, lift depression.

Suicide and violence

Depression is the main psychiatric illness that predisposes to suicide. The

anti-cholesterol lobby would have us believe that the lower your cholesterol,

the healthier you are. But a French study concluded that 'Both low serum

cholesterol concentration and declining cholesterol concentration were

associated with increased risk of death from suicide in men.'[2] This confirmed

many

previous epidemiological and clinical studies which had described an

association between lower blood cholesterol and increased suicide risk that is

not

entirely attributable to depression-related malnutrition and weight loss.[3]

Low cholesterol and suicide

If your cholesterol is too low – that is below about 4.42 mmol/L (170 mg/dL)

your risk of mood disorders, depression, stroke, and violence is increased.

During trials to lower levels of cholesterol in the blood, it became obvious

that there was a tendency towards more suicides and violent deaths in the

treatment groups. In 1991 Canadian investigators examined this trend.[4]

Adjusting for age and sex, they found that those whose cholesterol was below

4.27

were 6 times more likely to attempt suicide that those with cholesterol above

5.77.

 

This was confirmed by a study conducted at the Psychiatric Clinic, Charles

University of Prague.[5] Patients in this study who had attempted a violent

suicide had significantly lower cholesterol levels than patients with

non-violent attempts and the control subjects. The authors say 'Our findings .

.. . are

consistent with the theory that low levels of cholesterol are associated

with increased tendency for impulsive behaviour and aggression and contribute

to

a more violent pattern of suicidal behaviour.' They conclude 'These data

indicate that low serum total cholesterol level is associated with an increased

risk of suicide.'

 

Polyunsaturated fats are recommended to lower cholesterol levels. This

protocol could also add to the risk of suicide as a 2006 study found that

people

with a high intake of polyunsaturated vegetable margarines and cooking oils,

which were unbalanced with respect to omega-3 fatty acids were more likely to

commit suicide.[6]

 

One of the many studies examining the effects of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty

acid levels on suicide and violence reported finding evidence of 'a striking

correlation' between the greater consumption of omega-6 linoleic acid from

seed oils over the period 1961 to 2000 and the growing number of homicides in

the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, and Argentina.[7]

 

And there may be another dietary aspect. A team from the Medical Research

Council, led by Professor David Barker traced suicide rates in 15,500

Hertfordshire men and women whose birth records are available since 1911.[8]

They

found that men and women who committed suicide had low rates of weight gain in

infancy. And that too could be caused by a carbohydrate-rich, nutrient-poor

diet.

Depressing drugs

Dr Andrew Mosholder, an expert with America's Food and Drug Administration,

reviewed 24 studies involving 4,582 patients taking one of nine different

antidepressants. They showed that the drugs nearly doubled the risk of suicide

among children and young adults. The FDA barred him from publishing his

findings, but they were leaked to the press in 2004. In 2006, Mosholder's study

was

published.[9] It makes for extremely worrying reading. More worrying,

perhaps, is that the FDA's principal role is guardian of public safety, yet it

suppressed this evidence for two years. How many children during that time took

their lives?

References

[1]. Murray, CJL, Lopez, AD (Eds). The Global Burden of Disease. Harvard

University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1996.

[2]. Zureik M, Courbon D, Ducimetiere P. Serum cholesterol concentration and

death from suicide in men: Paris Prospective Study I. BMJ 1996; 313: 649-51.

[3]. Dunnigan M G. The problem with cholesterol: No light at the end of this

tunnel? BMJ 1993; 306: 1355-6.

[4]. Ellison LF, Morrison HI. Low serum cholesterol concentration and risk

of suicide. Epidemiology 2001; 12: 168-72.

[5]. Vevera J, Zukov I, Morcinek T, Papezova H. Cholesterol concentrations

in violent and non-violent women suicide attempters. Eur Psychiatry 2003; 18:

23-7.

[6]. Sublette ME, Hibbeln JR, Galfalvy H, et al. Omega-3 polyunsaturated

essential fatty acid status as a predictor of future suicide risk. Am J

Psychiatry 2006; 163: 1100-2.

[7]. Hibbeln JR, Nieminen LRC, Lands WEM. Increasing homicide rates and

linoleic acid consumption among five Western countries, 1961-2000. Lipids 2004;

39: 1207-13.

[8]. Barker DJP, Osmond C, Rodin I, et al. Low weight gain and suicide in

later life. BMJ 1995; 311: 1203.

[9]. Hammad TA, Laughren T, Judith Racoosin J. Suicidality in Pediatric

Patients Treated With Antidepressant Drugs. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2006; 63: 332 -

339.