Posted by Larry Hoover on August 14, 2004, at 19:45:46
In reply to immune system/ depression, posted by Emme on August 8, 2004, at 16:41:00
> Hi All,
>
> I posted over on the med board to get thoughts on the inflammatory process and depression. I won't repeat the whole post here, but I'm wondering if it is possible for a low-dose interferon treatment I had years ago to have triggered an immune response that long outlasts the treatment and perpetuates mood problems.There is a theory that suggests that possibility. Because interferon induces changes in brain chemistry identical to those seen in depression, and both have similar response to antidepressive agents, it has been argued that the former is merely an artificial or iatrogenic form of the latter.
Your experience with interferon may have "primed" your body to be more vulnerable to depressive stressors at a later time.
> I am wondering what alternative treatments might be immunomodulating and help any inflammatory processes.
Interferon treatment induces tryptophan stress, by more than one mechanism. The effect is to create a systemic deficiency in serotonin. The obvious intervention would be tryptophan supplementation, but nicotinamide would also be a useful adjunct, as one pathway which contributes to the tryptophan deficit is the enhanced conversion of tryptophan to what eventually becomes NADH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide).
> I know fish oil does this.
Yes, it does.
> I know SJW is supposed to as well, but I didn't do well with SJW.
>
> Thanks,
> EmmeYou might want to consider ginkgo biloba. It downregulates a number of genes which are implicated in inflammatory reactions.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:375393
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040718/msgs/377720.html