Posted by Tomatheus on April 18, 2016, at 22:31:28
In reply to Re: Helping those with mental health conditions » Tomatheus, posted by Hello321 on April 18, 2016, at 19:10:28
Thank you for your reply, Hello321. The information that you've provided in this thread about diet, particularly what you've written regarding grains and carbohydrates, is definitely interesting, and I most certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility that making dietary changes might lead to improved mental health in a many individuals, including some with mental health conditions. I personally see the causes of mental health conditions as being complex and varied, and I think that in some cases, you might be right that what psychiatric medications treat could be the end result of deeper problems in our brains and bodies. In other cases, though, I think that even though psychiatric medications might be treating certain downstream biological consequences of bigger things that are happening in our bodies, these biological consequences might not be that far downstream.
I mentioned the monoamine oxidase A enzyme in my last post, citing a study that had found a significant tendency toward elevated levels of the enzyme in the brains of those with major depressive disorder. If it is indeed the case that MAO-A levels are elevated in clinically depressed patients, then the question must be asked as to what causes the enzyme to be at a high level. Variants of the MAO-A gene might be a possibility in some cases, but I think that another possibility could be that elevated levels of certain building blocks of the enzyme, namely copper, might be contributing to the high MAO-A levels. A small study (Salustri et al., 2010) found copper levels and "free" copper levels to be elevated in depressed patients relative to controls, and when the study that found MAO-A levels to be elevated in the brains of depressed patients is looked at alongside findings of older studies that found MAO-B levels to be elevated in blood platelets of depressed patients, an argument can be made that perhaps it is copper driving up MAO levels, since levels of both copper-containing MAO levels have been found to be elevated in depressed patients. So then, if excesses of copper are driving up MAO levels, which might possibly contribute to depressive illness, the possible cause of the copper excesses would then need to be looked at. My best guess as to what might be causing copper and/or "free" copper levels to be elevated in some depressed patients is that some sorts of chronic infections might be causing this, perhaps different infections in different individuals, but I'm basically just speculating and hypothesizing about this more than anything else right now.
At any rate, I think that regardless as to what might cause mental health conditions and regardless as to how varied the causes of such conditions might be in different individuals, trying different approaches to treatment when the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth-line approaches that have been tried didn't produce any kind of positive results in the long run makes a lot of sense. That's basically what I'm doing now with the orthomolecular approach that I'm currently utilizing along with following healthier habits and applying psychological self-help strategies, and it sounds like that's also basically what you've been doing with the dietary modifications that you've been trying out. Maybe at some point I'll reach the conclusion that the approaches that I'm currently utilizing also aren't going to be helpful in the long run, and if that occurs, I'd like to hope that I'll try yet another different approach to treatment, but I think that when certain approaches to treatment do not produce positive results over and over again, it then becomes time to try something different.
Tomatheus
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REFERENCE
Salustri, C., Squitti, R, Zappasodi, F., Ventriglia, M., Bevacqua, M.G., Fontana, M., et al. (2010). Oxidative stress and brain glutamate-mediated excitability in depressed patients. Journal of Affective Disorders, 127, 321-325. Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20547423
"Maybe someday
We'll figure all this out
We'll put an end to all our doubt
Try to find a way to just feel better now"- Rob Thomas
poster:Tomatheus
thread:1088191
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20160331/msgs/1088276.html