Photo Credit: Anh Nguyen
Mood disorders such as anxiety and depression have become commonplace conditions. We can all safely name several people who are close to us, including perhaps ourselves, who might struggle with depression or anxiety. This fact should not only shock us but upset us. While there should certainly be no stigma attached to these problems, I’m sure we would all like to see depression and anxiety decrease in prevalence. Why have the rates of depression/anxiety skyrocketed in the past decade? This is especially concerning in the United States, where food and shelter is plentiful and most of us don’t face the everyday battle of “where is my next meal coming from?”
I commonly see people turn to medication for these issues. While medication, of course, has its place, many people are often still feel sad/depressed/anxious, etc. Is there another way to help or understand address these sensitive mental health issues?
Today I want to discuss some causes of depression and anxiety. This is not intended to be an all-encompassing list, but hopefully a helpful one in learning more about underlying causes of these problems.
Here are my 5 top reasons why someone could be struggling with depression/anxiety.
1. Leaky gut
There is a big buzz word for you. We hear it ALL over the place but what does it mean and how does it impact our moods? First, what does normal gut function look like? Our gut is like a big hose, think a garden hose, and it extends from our mouth to our tailbone. The function of the garden house is to keep water in and moving forward, just like the function of our gut is to keep the food contents going/digesting/absorbing in proper times. If we have leaky gut we literally get “leaky” cells which let out its contents (proteins/fats/bacteria) etc. into the blood stream. Our bodies try to protect us from these foreign objects in the blood stream, so they send white blood cells to fight off our food particles. This is all good and well if it happens once. But when this happens over and over again, guess what happens? You develop an autoimmune reaction from those immune cells, which then go and attack your own healthy tissues like your joints, your thyroid gland, your BRAIN (yes, your brain), your placenta (if you’re pregnant), and any other organs or healthy tissues in the body. Guess where else the majority of your “happy” neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, etc.) are made? Yes, the GUT! So, if your gut is stressed out, you will FEEL stressed out. Check out my article on how to naturally address gut health and feel better!
2. Inflammation
Inflammation is directly linked to depression. A 2014 research article by Harvard University showed a direct link between depression and inflammation. You can measure your inflammation rates by several different markers in the blood and one of them is C reactive protein. If it is high then your inflammation is high. Inflammation is tied to a plethora of autoimmune diseases, hormone imbalances and finally mood disorders. So, if you’re wondering why you have depression/anxiety, it might be that you have higher than normal inflammation markers in your blood. (Stay tuned on how to fix that naturally.)
3. Toxicity
What does this actually mean? We hear so many people around us going on detoxes and doing juice cleanses, etc. So, let’s break it down. In our society today, we are faced and bombarded with a ton of chemicals and pesticides EVERY DAY. Where do we find these things? How about in our cleaning products, our self care products, our lotions, our candles, anything scented around you that’s not found in nature, crop protectants, food dyes, toxic chemicals used to kill weeds, the list really goes on and on. The reality is that we cannot get away from those things. But the trick is that if you have a healthy and functional digestive tract you can live in this environment without getting sick. In my practice with my patients I rarely advise them to go on a detox. Why? Because I find that once we ensure that our digestive system (liver, gallbladder, small intestine, larger intestine, stomach, etc.) are fully functional our body does this process naturally and GENTLY without putting yourself into a crazy detox state which makes you feel horrible. The benefit of doing a gentle detox is that it happens gradually without making you feel super sick and it helps to retrain your body to get rid of those wastes products without shocking your system.
4. Suppressed emotions.
Okay this is a tricky one but we all do this. Something traumatic/painful happens in our lives, whether we lose a dog at a young age, we are rejected from a sports team, we suffer abuse, we lose a loved one, anything that our body and mind holds on to and deems to be traumatic. This will look very different for each one of us. As a result of these experiences, our bodies and our brain go into a protective mode, and protect us dealing with these things as we’re going through them. This is very healthy and normal at first. However, most of us aren’t able to process and work through those emotions until YEARS down the line. And these emotions get stored in our bodies, in different parts of our brain and nervous system. If we don’t process these emotions properly we can get physical symptoms, such as headaches, hormone imbalance, digestive issues, adrenal stress, and most commonly depression and anxiety. In my office, I do Neuro-Emotional Technique (NET), which helps people connect with those emotions. It helps them to truly let go, not only emotionally but physically. (I attached a link here where you can read more about this technique and how it helps people). In the long term, these stored negative emotions can also become toxic and inflammatory to our physiology and can really hinder the way that we are able to live.
5. Bugs/Infections/Heavy Metals
That’s right getting an infection, and having too much heavy metals in our bodies can also inflame us. Again, our bodies try to protect us from these “foreign” molecules and will mount an immune response to keep us from becoming sick. Over the long term we develop low grade inflammation, most commonly in the gut, which will disrupt the synthesis (production) of neurotransmitters (happy chemicals) and will impact your brain.
This blog post included some of the WHY we see inflammation and how its linked to depression/anxiety. Later I will address HOW we can go about fixing it so that we can finally feel free happy and at peace!
If you have been struggling with anxiety or depression and want to learn more about how I can help, click the link to schedule an appointment.
If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.