More good news on stopping depression....

Today's Post:  Friday, 12-14-2012

This is a very large and important problem because the drugs prescribed for depression today we now know when ALL the studies were found including the negative ones enabling a complete evaluation, these drugs are often no more effective than placebo.

And, even in the people they have helped, it quite often takes 6 weeks of taking today’s antidepressants with no effect on the depression before the drugs seemed to help.

Often people with depression need much faster initial results!  And, they want much more effective methods.

The first bit of good news is that they found that using Ketamine almost instantly reverses even severe depression.  But it has side effects in long term use or even just a few days instead of just one day that it is not safe to continue people on it.

And, we now are beginning to know effective cognitive and physical therapies not using drugs for long term success in reversing depression.  They are well over 75% effective if you use them all.

(We described these in our Thursday, 10-18-2012 post AND have added it at the end of this post for you if you want to begin using the methods yourself.

If you use them all and keep working to use them better, they do work and have well over a 75% success rate. 

But they take several weeks to a few months to install successfully.)

Some of these rebuild your nerves and brain cells -- damage to which caused the depression in many cases.  They take time to do this while Ketamine apparently enables these nerves to deliver full function temporarily.

Beginning those methods immediately after Ketamine use or even the day it’s working does look promising.

But it still would be good to have something that lasted longer than Ketamine until this nerve and brain cell rebuilding does enough repair to begin to help reverse that part of the depression.

The NEWS this week:

Earlier this week a story about a new drug that may do this was in Medical News Today!

What apparently happened is that someone decided to try to create a drug that did what Ketamine did almost as well but without the side effects so it could be continued for the several weeks to a few months needed to put the other things in place. 

This report suggests that the effort to find a Ketamine like but very low side effect and continuable drug may have succeeded!

“Novel NMDA Receptor Modulator Significantly Reduces Depression Scores Within Hours

http://mnt.to/a/49HR

Naurex Inc., a clinical stage company developing innovative treatments to address unmet

needs in psychiatry and neurology, today reported positive results from a Phase IIa clinical trial of its lead antidepressant compound, GLYX-13.

Article Date: 11 Dec 2012 - 0:00 PST”

For now, Ketamine use to enable you to get a short break from depression and so you can feel directly for yourself that recovery IS possible -- IS available.

And, clearly beginning the methods that work but take time immediately makes sense. 

But the good news is that the “missing link” we need to have a complete cure may be on its way!  This drug may well prove to do that job safely.

PS:  By the way, some of the things in the multipart method in our earlier post we include next, do begin working much sooner.

Moderate exercise can help. 

But even short amounts of vigorous exercise well within your limits often produce immediate if temporary relief from depression. 

It’s like a mild Ketamine effect you can do on your own when you need it.  Of course doing such exercise several times a week almost every day begins the process of growing new brain cells too!

And, for some people, taking supplements such as B complex vitamins,  B12, omega 3 supplements – especially DHA, and taking enough vitamin D3 (2,000 to 5,000 iu a day), and the supplement citicoline get faster results. 

So, like exercise, beginning those right away is a good idea.

Feel better, have more energy, and stay mentally sharp....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 10-18-2012

A.  There are many effective ways to feel better and turn off depression. 

1.  A psychologist called Stephen Ilardi wrote a book called, The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs.  He found that 75% of the people who made a good faith effort and kept going on all 6 things were no longer depressed. 

Regular socializing with people you treat well and getting enough sleep and getting regular exercise and eating wild caught fish or taking omega 3 supplements are some of the things on his list of 6.  Getting enough omega 3 helps people be less crabby and irritable which helps with socializing for example.

Completely STOPPING ruminating about bad things also helps. 

One way to do that is write them down; decide which ones are worth fixing, what you’ll try to do to fix those and when. But then insisting on dropping any thoughts about it until time to do one of those things. 

Vigorous exercise or contacting someone who is fun to talk to or simply doing a chore you are good at are things you can do immediately to help do that.

I found that often shorter bouts of vigorous exercise is more effective and works faster than longer and slower exercise.  They are certainly easier to fit into a busy day!

Treating almost everyone with courtesy and respect and looking for reasons to like people and for things they are legitimately good at help make socializing easier & also helps.

2.  It’s been found that periodically writing down things you are thankful for and a few events that went well each day is effective too.

3.  Being very analytical and precise in thinking about things that go wrong in order to see that they are actually limited in time and potentially fixable due to their causes also helps. 

Being optimistic about things you will attempt to do enough to try to get them done also is effective.  Oddly, it’s effective even if you overestimate your chances of success.  The one key way to make that effective is to be prudent and careful of doing risky thing when you do this.  One of my college professor said this:  “If you’re doing something risky, jump in feet first instead of head first!”  If you are optimistic enough to try actions and prudent in doing them, you’ll be more effective and have more control over your life even if your chances don’t look good to most people.

Martin Seligman, PhD studied this and people who are high in both these things are happier, have better health, have more friends and make more money than people who are low in both. 

They feel better and are less depressed and get over it when it happens more surely and quickly.  His book is called, Learned Optimism.

BUT some people are still depressed or in such harsh circumstances these things can sometimes not be enough.

As Rev Bob Schuler once wrote, Tough Times don’t last.

But what about people for whom better times (haven’t yet arrived) and are doing the things we list but are still depressed?

The good news is that this is caused by damage to the brain or its nerves BUT we now know some things you can do to rebuild those nerves.

One of the reasons regular exercise and vigorous exercise are effective is because doing them grows new nerves and brain cells due to your body releasing a growth hormone BDNF when you exercise.

The news is that there is one supplement by itself and a set of three supplement one of which is related to the first supplement that have been tested as effective in doing this job.

There is even a drug, Ketamine, that immediately stops severe depression by doing this.  But the effect only lasts a few days.

Starting the other things we list and these four supplements before it wears off may make even severe depression curable!

B.  Many of the things above also help you have more energy because you get more sleep and better sleep and feel less stressed.  But the first supplement we list also directly makes people taking it feel more energetic!

C.  There are many ways to prevent Alzheimer’s and other kinds  of mental decline that we have often posted about that prevent damage to your brain such as following a health oriented and heart safe eating plan and taking turmeric with black pepper and at least 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3.

And, we have posted about exercise as a way to prevent this due to its help in regrowing brain cells.

The very good news is that 3 of these supplements have tested at helping to prevent mental decline and even may reverse it in the early stages.  And the fourth is related to one of the three!

The first supplement is called, citicoline.  It was developed in Japan as a treatment for stroke victims that might boost their levels of choline in the brain and help grow new brain cells enough to improve things.  And, I've read it’s now in use in Europe for that purpose.

The best news is that it’s available as a supplement AND people who take it report their mood improves and their energy level goes up!

The other 3 were tested as helping to prevent or reverse mental decline and tested to show this was due to the growth of new neurons and an increase in their interconnections!

They were taken together and the man who set it up made a combination supplement of the 3 things that was used in the research.

But you don’t need his supplement because each of the three parts are available as supplements you can buy!  They are choline, DHA, and uridine.

Did I start doing this when I read that research?  Indeed I did!

I already took choline which is in the lecithin I take and the egg yolks I eat for breakfast.  (Now I’ll add citicoline too.) Choline also increases the protective HDL and protects your heart and brain circulation!

The second of the 3 parts is DHA.  It’s the omega 3 fraction that has the most brain benefits and is behind the reputation of fish as brain food.  (Note that the taking omega 3 supplements and eating wild caught fish like salmon in Dr Ilardi’s set of steps provides DHA in addition to EPA and other omega 3 oils!)  Due to DHA’s super reputation, I also take the DHA supplement by Jarrow each day in addition.

The third component, uridine, is hardly known but is apparently a growth initiator.  The really great news is that single heaping teaspoon of Brewer’s yeast mixed into water and drunk provides more than you likely need of uridine each day.

Solgar makes the Brewer’s yeast I take in this way and have since I read this research. 

Brewer’s yeast is also high in almost every amino acid protein component your body needs and B complex vitamins.  So you get extra health benefits.

AND taking the brewer’s yeast may work even better than uridine by itself to grow new brain cells because of this!

Note that if you are depressed and have low energy, many of the steps we list above are enough trouble to do it may be hard to get yourself to do them well enough.

So another way to use the four supplements is to start them first!

Then when your brain is working better and you feel a bit better and have more energy, do the other steps too!  

Solutions to drugs that keep you fat 2....

Today's Post: Friday, 3-16-2012

Last Friday, 3-9-2012, our post “Some drugs can keep you fat” listed several kinds of general strategies to drugs that tend to fatten you or keep you fat. For most of them, there is a better drug or a way to improve your condition that avoids using that drug.

Antidepressants can make you fat. The worst ones include Paxil (paroxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), amitriptyline (Elavil). and Remeron (mirtazapine).

“Wellbutrin (bupropion) and Prozac (fluoxetine) are considered weight-neutral or weight-loss drugs. "Generally, older antidepressants are typically more prone to cause weight gain than the newer SSRIs [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors]," Dr. Lawrence Cheskin said.

1. Wellbutrin is also sold as Zyban to help people quit smoking. If you are taking Zyban to quit smoking, it is on the mostly OK list for avoiding this problem. It does have side effects for many people. But if you do enough other things to quit including finding out how unbelievably harmful tobacco and its smoke really are, once the tobacco smoke effects wear off in your body, you can soon after that take less and then none.

It’s worth it if you need it to quit smoking. And it won’t add extra weight while you take it.
Very carefully done vigorous exercise that you start really slow and increase really slow both helps people quit and improves depression for most people better than the drug. So start doing just a bit of exercise right when you quit. Then by continuing to do it, when you need to cut down or stop the Zyban, you won’t need it as much anyway. The exercise will also help avoid the weight gain from quitting. If you also upgrade your food to health supporting food only and go really easy on sugar and avoid overeating, you can avoid the rest of the weight gain from quitting.

2. Two, it’s beginning to look as if the entire group of studies on antidepressants shows that they are less effective for most people than exercise. The drugs have little effect for most people and exercise works for most people!

Some people need more than exercise of course. But people who do vigorous exercise regularly do become much less depressed over time. The best news is that while you focus on doing the vigorous exercises and recovering right afterwards, it shuts off the negative thoughts and you get almost immediate if temporary relief from depression!

Since antidepressants cost money and have side effects and are even somewhat addictive, another solution is to try all the nondrug methods for fighting depression instead.

Some people will need skilled talk therapy to teach them the skills described by Dr Martin Seligman in his book, Learned Optimism in addition.

Depressed people have thinking patterns that cause them to be depressed. So if you do the other things in this post that improve the physical side, learning to stop these patterns and replace them with more effective and happier ones, and if you learn this skill well, you can often stop being depressed.

In some cases, actual brain damage can cause depression.

A doctor who treats both of these is Dr Daniel Amen.

He describes the talk therapy part as learning to kill the ANTS, automatic negative thoughts. He has a new book called, The Amen Solution: The Brain Healthy Way to Get Thinner, Smarter, Happier by Daniel G. Amen M.D. that does a good job of describing getting rid of the ANTS. He calls the most damaging ones, red ANTS. Some of his patients were able to use that information to learn to kill off these thoughts on their own. And all of them who learned to do so were able to feel much better AND be far more effective at losing fat. Many rated it the most useful part of his program. (And, the rest of it is quite good!)

In that book, he also describes the different parts of your brain that can be damaged or not working well and the things he has found effective to help those people.

Then too Dr Ilardi has a book called, The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs by Stephen S. Ilardi.

He found that 85% of people who did all 6 of those steps stopped being depressed. That’s not 100 %. But it’s dramatically better than the almost no effect for most people of the drugs.

a) Adding omega 3 from wild caught fish or supplements helps. He found that most depressed people were deficient in omega 3.

When that happens, people feel physical pain more and are more irritable -- which can drive people away and can trigger feeling depressed. Other studies show that your brain literally works better and lasts longer with enough omega 3.

We did a recent post on Better than glucosamine on Tuesday, 3-6 that describes how to limit excess omega 6 and how adding omega 3 AND sharply limiting omega 6 lowers inflammation and very likely helps you be less depressed. The way of eating described also lowers high blood pressure and makes it dramatically easier to lose fat and keep it off.

b) Another thing he does to have people take enough vitamin D3. If you are deficient in this vitamin which most people are, it does tend to cause you to be depressed. In mid-winter, many people get SAD, a kind of depression caused by too little sun exposure and vitamin D you get from that. Many people do need more than just enough vitamin D3 to stop being depressed. But turning off this cause does help make sure the other methods will succeed.

Opinion is mixed for higher doses and levels. But it’s now clear to the people who research vitamin D3 that about 3,000 iu is the minimum you should take each day. And, if you test for your vitamin D level in your blood, you should be at 50 or above.

If your level tests in the 30 to 49 range many doctors who don’t know this new information will say that’s OK. (Below 30 is severely deficient.)

Opinion on taking more than 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 and blood levels above 60 is mixed. One study found that taking 4,000 to 8,000 a day was more effective in preventing cancer for example than taking less.

c) He is a very strong advocate for exercise. He found it helps.

d) He calls automatic negative thinking, ANTS, ruminative thinking. Instead of enjoying life or getting things done, he found that not only to depressed people have these self damaging thoughts they spend time running them over and over again.

He teaches people to STOP and replace these thought with more positive ones and to immediately take action on something to stop the endless loop effect.

e) He teaches people how to interact well with other people and has them begin to do it far more often. Isolation and loneliness cause depression. He found learning ways to stop that and doing them often helps turn off the depression.

f) He teaches people to be sure to get enough sleep as his step 6. People who sleep too little often have too little mental energy to think clearly. They can be too tired to do it well!

People who get less than 6 hours of sleep a night except for a tiny minority of people with a special heredity have all sorts of extra health problems. (More than 7 is a challenge for most busy people. And more than 8 suggests health problems and is not good on a daily basis.) 7 hours a night is ideal if you can manage it. 6 and a half to 7 and a half is good. But the key thing is not to sleep less than 6 hours a day.

And, it also helps to sleep well.

In addition the ways to sleep better without drugs that we listed in our post yesterday, going to bed at about the same time each night and getting up at the same exact time each morning.

Research found that people who hit the snooze button or reset the alarm clock to a later time on weekdays. Got no more rest than if they got up and then were behind schedule besides. Plus your body acclimates to getting up every weekday at the same exact time.

g) Dr Julian Whitaker says that for people who do need the serotonin boost that the drugs try to deliver can get it more safely by eating the spice saffron or taking it as a supplement.

He points out that people low on serotonin tend to crave sweets. So this is a good alternative to shut down that craving without the sugar and its effects he has found with his patients.