Inflammation and Depression: Your Choices Impact Your Mental Health

Don't I Just Need to Find the Right Medication?

If you have been battling depression, you might feel helpless because nothing you've tried lately is working. However, there is more to treating depression than finding the right medication or the right therapist. While the right medication coupled with effective therapy can be paramount to treating severe depression, there are lifestyle factors to consider. The choices you make on a daily basis can have a profound effect on your mood and on your mental health, in general.

inflamation and depression

Chronic Systemic Inflammation and Depression

Mounting evidence suggests that chronic systemic inflammation plays a significant role in depression. The overactivity of your immune system can impact your mental health in ways you may not be aware. Inflammation is a biological response to injury or illness and can be acute or chronic in nature. Inflammation is associated with medical conditions like arthritis and autoimmune disorders and can also result from obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition and gut health, social stress, and poor sleep. Click HERE to learn more about the link between chronic systemic inflammation and depression. Here's another link.

In "The Underlying Mechanisms of Depression," Dr. Rhonda Patrick presents an informative and enlightening description of the link between chronic inflammation and depression.

Your Diet, Your Mood

Consider the choices you make daily, regarding what you eat and drink. What did you eat and/or drink for breakfast today? For lunch? Did your last meal leave you feeling energized and light, or sluggish and unable to focus?

Exercise and Its Power to Reduce Depressive Symptoms

How much or how little have you moved your body in the last week? Do you remember the last time you took a walk, or went to that spinning class? Google 'exercise and depression,' and you will find plenty about how exercise is effective in reducing depressive symptoms. Or, just read this 2013 article from Psychology Today: "25 Studies Confirm: Exercise Prevents Depression". Inflammation and depression

Curious as to how yoga might help with your depression? Check THIS out.

Other Factors to Consider

Are you getting enough Zzzzs? How is the quality of your sleep? Do you feel rested at all when you wake up? Have you thought about how many hours of sleep would prove most effective for you!?

How about social stress? Do your relationships empower or exhaust you? How does the environment you work or live in impact your mood and your ability to function?

Your life matters, & the choices you make matter. Whether you are in the throes of depression or not, self-care is vital to your mental health.

Help is Available

For more information about how your diet or lifestyle may be influencing your mental health, contact us to learn about NeuroMend's Functional Medicine Practitioner services.