Depression affects 1 in 15 adults in any given year. And one in six people will experience depression at some time in their life. Depression can occur at any time, but on average first appears during the late teens to the mid-20’s. Women are more likely than men to experience depression and about one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime.
Symptoms of depression can vary from mild to severe and can include: feeling sad or having a depressed mood, loss of interest in activities once enjoyed, changes in appetite including weight loss or gain, trouble sleeping or sleeping too much, loss of energy, feeling worthless or guilty, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, thoughts of death or suicide.
It has been said that genetics may play a role, and while this may be true for all diseases and not just with depression, the real truth is that the genes we’ve inherited are actually lying dormant, but they need some triggers which we create through mistakes in diet and daily routine in order for them to wake up and start expressing themselves.
So as with all diseases that we see, always remember that the underlying causes need to be addressed, and these underlying causes are usually numerous and are different in each person. It’s always important to identify the mistakes you might be making which are causing your sleeping genes to wake up and start expressing themselves. This is especially true for depression.
Many of the common treatments for depression revolve around modifying one’s brain chemistry. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are usually the first choice of medication for treating depression. They work by slowing up the reabsorption of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a chemical which helps regulate mood and anxiety. This way the serotonin can remain in the blood stream longer, easing up the depression.
It is important to know that there are numerous other medications besides the SSRIs to help alleviate symptoms of depression. These medications could be life-saving if you or your loved one is threatening suicide.
But we should also take a look at the underlying causes of depression and learn how to address them so that we can either prevent the depression from coming in the first place, or if you are already on an anti-depressant, perhaps over time, with the help of your doctor, you could slowly wean off it.
As with everything else we treat in Ayurveda we always want to trace any and all imbalances first to improper digestion. Here’s the way it works: once you swallow food and it goes through the digestive tract, it has to be broken down into smaller and smaller particles until it then enters the bloodstream.
From there the food spends 3-5 days in each tissue before moving on to the next tissue until all 7 tissues are nourished. The tissues are blood plasma, blood, muscle, fat, bone, bone marrow and reproductive fluids.
Now this is very important: at the end of the 7th tissue you then make a compound called Ojas. Ojas is the neurotransmitters and the hormones and gives you great stamina, strength and immunity to disease.
Keep this in mind: your neurotransmitters and hormones dictate the way you feel: if you are happy or depressed, lethargic or energetic, hyper or calm. So, in order to have good Ojas or balanced hormones and neurotransmitters, first your digestion of the food must be complete and the food itself must be nourishing, wholesome and freshly prepared.
Many of the teenagers I see have poor digestion due to the high amounts of pharmaceuticals they are given from the time they are born. This is because the vaccines and antibiotics they take destroy the friendly bacteria in the gut and make the liver very hot, reactive and toxic.
And to make matters worse, the diets of our children are quite deficient, especially if the child turns towards processed foods.
And to add insult to injury, the friendly bacteria in the gut make 90% of the neurotransmitters that the brain needs to function properly. No wonder so many of our teenagers are depressed! Between their poor gut microbiome, combined with their inadequate diets.
As just stated, when there are too many hot chemical toxins circulating through the liver it overheats the liver, which in turn makes you angry. Just ask any woman who suffers from PMS — the liver overheats right before the menstrual cycle is due, which is what makes them so angry during that time. Then once the menstrual cycle is over and the liver cools down, the emotions also cool back down to normal. As a result, many of the kids we see today are walking around with hot angry livers — no wonder they are angry and can’t control their emotions.
Then on top of all this, if the chid goes to bed late — many other imbalances begin. Going to bed past 10:00 PM makes the liver even hotter and it weakens the endocrine glands — the system of glands that make hormones, such as the thyroid, the adrenals and the ovaries or testes. These glands are very delicately balanced and they need the hours of rest before midnight to rejuvenate them. The ancient doctors of India said that it is a fundamental law of nature that human beings should be asleep when the sun goes down and awake before or as the sun comes up. Breaking this very basic law exhausts the glands, you feel tired, lethargic and depressed the next day as the glands are now struggling to make their happy hormones.
In fact, walking outside as the sun comes up helps to establish one’s circadian rhythms.This allows us to get sleepy at night as more melatonin is automatically released once the sunlight enters the pupils early in the morning. And just being in the sunlight increases serotonin by 800%!!! Serotonin is what the SSRI’s are trying to keep in circulation. Just getting out in the sun everyday will help this…and without the toxicity and the side effects of the SSRI’s.
Remember the old adage: early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. So many of our patients feel so much better once they fix their digestion, go to bed by 10:00 pm, eat a wholesome, healthy diet and get out in the early morning sun everyday.
Many of our patients are vegetarian and do not consume any milk or milk products. The ancient doctors of India stated that you need some animal protein every day in your diet. So if you are a vegetarian then your animal protein would come from milk and milk products.
But if there are no milk products in your diet you run the risk of losing your stores of Vitamin B12 which could also cause depression.
And don’t forget: your adrenal and sex hormones are made out of cholesterol and cholesterol comes from an animal. And your thyroid gland makes its hormones out of animal protein as well. So if there are no milk products in the diet there won’t be enough raw materials to make these hormones, which could potentially result in depression. So many of our patients who present with depression have a weakness in the thyroid and adrenals since the hormones produced by these glands make us feel very upbeat and enthusiastic about life.
Many people are giving up animal milk, such as cow’s or goat’s milk in favor of plant-based milks. While this might be OK if you are allergic to these animal’s milks, you might be interested to know that animal milk is the only food which can make Ojas the same day it is taken, in fact almost immediately when it is consumed. Any other food you can think of takes about a month to make Ojas as it slowly makes its way through each of the 7 tissues.
Always keep up your stores of Ojas. It gets depleted with over-exercise, over-work, burning the candle at both ends, stress, too much sexual activity, too much bleeding or diarrhea, lack of absorption of nutrients and a deficient diet.
So if you keep overworking without rejuvenating your body with proper rest you’ll run the risk of depleting your Ojas and weakening your endocrine glands, which could ultimately result in depression. If you have to work long hours during the week try to spend one whole day on the weekend just resting, eating healthy foods, sitting in the sun, taking naps and allowing your body to rejuvenate and reinvigorate itself after pushing it so hard all week.
But here’s the good news: we have a huge arsenal of herbs in Ayurveda which can strengthen the weak endocrine glands, remedies to restore the friendly bacteria in the gut, and many herbs to cool down the heat in the liver. We also have a wide variety of antidepressant herbs which have been used for thousands of years before the use of the pharmaceutical SSRI’s. We even have herbal formulas to build up your Ojas!
So hopefully by following these guidelines you or your loved ones will never have to suffer depression which can decrease your quality of life tremendously.
Thank you