Undernourished and Overfed

I shared in my previous post that I’ve been on a bit of a journey with my health, and I wanted to explain what I’m doing, why, and how it’s been going. It may help you, it may not. Take what you like, and leave the rest.

A friend recommended I read the book, Integrative Medicine for Depression by James Greenblatt, because she felt like it was really helping her. We had this conversation several months ago, and she was super excited about how much better she felt since eliminating sugar from her diet. Well, honestly, I probably would have gotten started sooner if she hadn’t led with that. Because I love me a Dr. Pepper, some ice cream, chocolate, cookie dough…and the thought of never having those again was too much to bear.

However, I’ve been fighting depression, anxiety, and insomnia for about 16 years now. Okay, probably much longer than that, but I was diagnosed then and put on medication then. In the years since, I’ve continued to struggle, as so many do, on all these meds. One causes weight gain, another causes insomnia, one causes my heart to race, so I need another to calm it down. I’ve tried just about every drug out there, and I’ve even gotten completely off of them all a couple times. I’ve always gone back on though, and really, none of it has actually fixed the problem.

I’ve flirted with the idea of weaning myself off again, and I figured I’d at least read the book and maybe try a thing or two. I purchased the book, and I started reading it during Thanksgiving break. I decided to just take it a section at a time, try that thing, see if it helped, and then move on to the next thing. No pressure. If it didn’t help, I’d go back to whatever.

The overall idea of the book is that there is a lot we can do with nutrition and lifestyle to actually fix the problem of depression, while medication only helps mask the symptoms. The super scientific (NOT) way that most doctors treat depression is to just throw their “favorite” antidepressant at you and hope for the best. If (when) that doesn’t work, they try something else. Maybe they switch drugs. Maybe they add a second (or third, or fourth) drug to combat the side effects of the first drug. The hope is that they’ll eventually find the “right combination for you.” Sure, Jan.

Then there’s the whole problem of “Big Pharma” in our country. Drug companies are out to make money, not to treat depression (or anything else). They fund studies to prove their drugs work, then they selectively publish the ones that prove what they want to prove. Then they go out and advertise the drugs both to doctors and to consumers. This practice of advertising drugs directly to consumers is only legal in the US and in New Zealand. It’s illegal everywhere else in the world. Because, you know, Joe Schmoe sitting on his couch knows nothing about medicine, and sees Happify on a commercial. Then Joe goes to his doctor and asks about Happify, and the doctor says sure, let’s give it a go, and Happify makes $$$$. What a great system, for the makers of Happify. Is Joe better off? Maybe. Probably not.

More and more people in our country are taking anti-depressants each year. And they can work, to some degree, for some people. But there are a lot of studies that show they don’t work, or that they work only minimally. And when they do work, they often come with a lot of unwanted side-effects.

This is probably another great time for me to remind you that I am not a doctor, and what I’m writing here is simply sharing my story and how things are going for me. You should consult your medical professional before starting any new regimen, and you for sure should NOT just quit your meds without a doctor’s guidance.

Okay, with that out of the way, here’s where I started. One of the early chapters in the book is about digestion. Now, what on earth does digestion have to do with depression? you might ask, as I did. Turns out there’s a lot to digestion that I didn’t understand. I’ve heard about probiotics and prebiotics and the importance of fiber. I’ve tried all those things, and I didn’t feel any different, so I quit. But it turns out that poor digestion can be a huge factor in depression. Furthermore, a poor diet leads to poor digestion, which means the body isn’t using the nutrients it does take in. And if you’re depressed, you don’t want to eat well, so you don’t. Which leads to worse digestion. It’s an evil loop.

Poor digestion often leads to heartburn, which we treat with antacids to reduce the stomach acid, but, get this, the problem is actually that we don’t have enough stomach acid to digest our food. Not too much acid! Not enough acid! So yeah, taking an antacid kinda makes you feel better, but it reduces the amount of stomach acid you have to digest your food, so you get more heartburn, so you take more antacids. Eventually you take more and more, stronger and stronger, and it just keeps getting worse.

So, the first thing I did was try not to take so many antacids. If I kinda had a little heartburn, I’d just power through. If it was bad, I’d take a Tums. But I tried to take less, and less strong stuff when I felt I had to take something. Meanwhile, I ordered a digestive enzyme and a probiotic supplement from Amazon. I bought the Revly brand of both of these, and once they arrived, I started taking one digestive enzyme capsule with each meal, and the probiotic twice a day.

Guys. GUYS. I’m not even kidding, within about three days I just wasn’t as hungry anymore. I mean, I’d eat, but I’d only want a little bit, and I was craving healthier things. And I started to feel better. It’s like my body just wasn’t able to absorb the nutrients before, so it told me I needed more and more food! I was eating too much, yet I was starving. Once my body was able to actually use the food I was eating, my body didn’t ask for so much food.

Side note, I have to tell you, both Nick and I have completely stopped having heartburn since we went vegan. NONE. He used to take a powerful antacid before bed every night, or else he’d wake up with horrible acid reflux that left him coughing and gasping and choking. Now? None. I had been taking more and more antacids myself, even sometimes having the same horrible painful acid reflux Nick had and taking his pills now and then.

Now I take none. Nick takes none. Neither of us has had an antacid for three weeks. And we’ve had zero heartburn.

So it’s like the depression was actually causing my body to be malnourished. And now I’ve stopped that cycle. My head is spinning over this simple little change. Even if I never changed anything else and only stuck with this one change, I swear it would have made a huge difference in my life.

I did make more changes, and I am feeling better and better, but those are stories for future posts. For now, get out there and digest some food!