Depression – An Inflammatory Disorder

Inflammation is one of the biggest issues that we deal with in today’s health. It is the culprit of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and many of today’s chronic illnesses. Recent studies have shown that we can now add depression to this list as well.

Inflammation in itself is not exactly a bad thing. It is part of our body’s natural immune response which helps to protect us from foreign substances and it is a necessary part of our body’s healing process. I’m sure at one point in our lives we have all had a bad ankle sprain. Aside from being painful, our ankle most likely experienced some swelling and got a little red and bruised. This is our body’s natural response to let us know that we need to stay off our foot so that it could heal.

The issue arises once we start dealing with chronic inflammation. If we’re consistently introducing foreign substances that our body does not like, than our body is constantly having to put up a battle. There’s only so much consistent fighting that our body can do before greater issues start to arise.

It is staggering to know that depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Now that we know that it is linked to inflammation we can start considering taking different measures of action and not just relying on the typical prescription medications (which in many cases have even shown that are actually causing more harm than good). Better yet, we can be more pro-active and do what we can to eliminate inflammation in our bodies to decrease the chances of even getting depression.

The correlation of depression and inflammation is not just a theory. This is now backed up by many scientific and medical studies. It was even seen how healthy people with no signs of depression started showing classic depressive symptoms almost instantly when they were given an infusion of a substance to trigger inflammation.

Refined sugars, such as table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, are things you want to avoid. These sugars have been chemically stripped of all their minerals so you basically are getting zero nutrition while making your body more acidic, which can lead to chronic inflammation.

Processed foods are another thing we should be avoiding. It is of no coincidence how the exponential increase in chronic illness has gone hand in hand with the industrialization of our food industry. Our typical American diet is primarily processed food containing minimal nutritional value, and it is one of the leading causes of today’s chronic inflammation.

If you are experiencing symptoms of depression, please consider visiting a doctor with expertise in nutrition and inflammation as soon as possible. Don’t just put a bandaid on these symptoms when they can be eliminated and avoided.