Devouring a good book is one way to nourish the mind. Taking in a good play is another. In fact, any intellectually stimulating experience of juicy morsel of prose is considered good food for thought.
But what would you say if we told you that real food - with all its vitamins and minerals - is just as important to Healthy Minds as to healthy bodies?
You might think that's pretty obvious. But it wasn't always so. Until recently, the scientific community believed that the brain was invulnerable to nutritional fluctuations. If nutrients circulating in the blood fell to dangerous levels, they insisted, the brain was the last organ to feel the effects. Short of a crisis, the brain was stable as a rock.
The brain is not immune to nutritional deficits.
Today we know that's just not true. A number of new studies have demonstrated that nearly a dozen specific nutrients can alter the biochemistry and function of the brain. A deficiency of any of them - even slight - can result in such common emotional problems as fatigue, irritability, and depression.
B Vitamins help supply the brain with its every source, glucose.
Key among these brain nutrients are the B vitamins. The role of B vitamins is extensive and complex. They are co-enzymes, or catalysts, in many of the body's most basic functions, including the process of oxidation (the body's burning of food to provide fuel). What this means is that they are needed to supply the brain with its energy source, glucose. Without enough glucose, the brain begins to perform poorly. Fatigue, depression, even hallucinations can be symptoms of low glucose level in the brain. B6 and niacin are the B vitamins most involved in this process.
But the b vitamins play a second crucial role in our mental health. Several are known to be involved in the production of neurotransmitters, biochemicals that allow the brain cells to pass messages along their nerve pathways.
"B6 is needed for the production of serotonin, a major neurotransmitter in many body functions," says Eric Braverman, M.D., of the Princeton Brain Bio Center in New Jersey. "Folate (one of the B vitamins) help produce catecholamines, which control many body functions. B12 is needed to produce acetylcholine, another neurotransmitter. In other words, all the chemicals produced by the brain cells depend on nutrients taken into the body, and in many cases, they seem to depend on certain B vitamins."
Without enough B vitamins - "a whole host of psychiatric symptoms."
What happens when they are not there? "We know that people who are not getting enough of these nutrients get a whole host of psychiatric and neurological symptoms, like depression, confusion, fatigue, and psychosis," says Charles Tkacz, of the North Nassau Mental Health Center in New York.
"We have found that many depressed patients are low in B6," Dr. Tkacz says. "A certain number are helped to recover from their depression by taking B6 under medical supervision."
B6 AND DEPRESSION
In Britain, for example, a team of psychiatrists found a specific correlation between depression and a deficiency of vitamin B6 or pyridoxine, as it is also called. In a study of 154 malnourished psychiatric patients, they found that 9 of 16 patients who lacked adequate B6 were also depressed. No other mental disease matched a single deficiency that well. Vitamin B6 has already been used to treat depression caused by use of oral contraceptives, the researchers noted (British Journal of Psychiatry).
Extra B6 may help fight the pre-menstrual blues.
Another study, although on a somewhat smaller scale, indicated that extra doses of vitamin B6 just may help fight another form of the blues known as pre-menstrual depression. The rationale here is that if extra vitamin B6 is helpful in combating the depression that can be caused by using contraceptives, it may also be helpful in other sex-hormone-related depression.
Jeffrey A Mattes, M.D., decided to test this theory when a woman colleague told him that pyridoxine helped her beat her pre-menstrual mood. Over the next eight months, the woman was given either a placebo or a B6 supplement for 10 days prior to the onset of her period. Although she didn't know which she was taking in any given month, she reported reduced pre-menstrual depression and irritability in the months she took the supplements (Human Nutrition: Applied Nutrition).
"This subject's pre-menstrual depression, which was rather typical of the pre-menstrual depression and irritability reported by many women, was significantly helped by pyridoxine," write the researchers.
"This small study cannot estimate the percentage of pre-menstrual depression which would be helped by pyridoxine," says Dr. Mattes. "However, it does appear that, for some women, pyridoxine can be significantly helpful."
The link between low B6 and menopausal depression.
The depression associated with hormone swings of pregnancy and menopause may also be related to lowered levels of vitamin B6. A study 15 depressed pregnant women showed that those with the deepest depression had the lowest blood levels of vitamin B6 (Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica).
Researchers discovered that post-menopausal women with depression have a disturbance in their tryptophan metabolism very similar to that found in patients hospitalized for depression (British Medical Journal).
Why B6 works.
Why is B6 effective in all these conditions? Because of that all-important neurotransmitter, serotonin. Some scientists theorize that low levels of serotonin cause depression. But to have enough serotonin, you need enough tryptophan, the amino-acid that is essential in its formation. And to have enough tryptophan, you need enough B6, without which tryptophan can't be formed. B6, tryptophan, serotonin: these links are crucial.
Estrogen can break them. Estrogen, a female hormone, can block the activity of B6, forcing it out of the body. And estrogen can speed up the metabolism of tryptophan, making less of it avail;able to form serotonin. That doesn't happen every day. But if estrogen levels are high - if you're pregnant, taking the Pill, or about to have your period - then you can have a shortage of tryptophan, or B6.
NIACIN: ANOTHER B FOR BAD MOODS
The B vitamin niacin is also necessary to ensure that tryptophan won't get side-tracked from serotonin production. When niacin is in short supply, tryptophan is converted to this vitamin to meet body needs. As a result, serotonin production suffers and so do your moods.
Symptoms of a niacin deficiency include anger and worry.
"The first noticeable symptoms of niacin deficiency are entirely psychological," Michael Lesser, a California psychiatrist, states in his book, Nutrition and Vitamin Therapy. "Victims may feel fearful, apprehensive, suspicious, and worry excessively with a gloomy, downcast, angry, and depressed outlook. They may experience headaches, insomnia, loss of strength, and burning sensations all over the body. Their depression may range from 'blue Mondays' to wish to end it all... "
Of course, pyridoxine and niacin aren't the only to B vitamins involved in emotional health.
Derrick Lonsdale, M.D., a Cleveland physician with a special interest in biochemistry and nutrition, found that one of the first signs of thiamine deficiency was changes in behaviour - neurotic symptoms like depression, insomnia, chest pain and chronic fatigue. All 20 of the patients he studied improved with additional thiamine.
Beriberi from junk food.
Apparently, those people were consuming large quantities of carbohydrates, often in the form of "junk food," without maintaining enough thiamine to metabolize or "burn" it. Dr. Lonsdale theorize that the body experiences this kind of imbalance as a thiamine shortage, ans shows nervous symptoms characteristics of beriberi, the classic thiamine deficiency disease. All 20 patients improved after thiamine supplementation (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
Low folate, no sex drive.
Nowadays, too, more and more physicians are looking into folate (also called folic acid) deficiency as a cause of depression. A recent study at McGill University, Montreal, examined the folate levels of 3 different groups of patients: those who were depressed, those who were psychiatrically ill but not depressed, and those who were medically ill. Six of the patients were men, 42 were women, and their ages ranged from 20 to 91 years. All were hospitalized for one week and were put on standard, identical diets with no drugs for supplement vitamins. Low folate levels were found in the depressed patients. In fact, the psychiatric patients had almost twice as much serum folate as the depressed patients. Not only did the low-folate patients show signs of depression, they also displayed reduced work productivity, lack of interest, psychic anxiety, and loss of sex drive (Psychosomatics).
VITAMIN B12: MORE THAN AN ENERGIZER
Vitamin B12 has built up quite a reputation as an energizer. But new evidence suggests that its stake in our mental health goes beyond that. Take the following case study as an example.
According to her family, the patient had been in her usual state of good health when suddenly, for no reason, she became extremely irritable and began to criticize and threaten them and throw objects around.
Naturally, her husband was alarmed and sought help from a doctor, who proceeded to prescribe anti-psychotic drugs to calm the woman down. However, after taking the drugs for one day, she not only refused to take them again but also refused all food as well. Frightened at this turn of events, the family brought her to the local Emergency Room.
The doctors immediately checked out her physical condition and tested her blood for abnormalities. Nothing seriously wrong showed up- except for a very low vitamin B12 level.
Replacement therapy was started right away along with an anti-psychotic drug. But after only one week, the woman's mental state improved dramatically that the drug was discontinued. Nine months after the treatment, the patient had no return of her bizarre symptoms and only her monthly B12 replacement shots reminded her of the close brush she had with Insanity.
"A wide range of psychiatric symptoms has been associated with pernicious anemia (a disorder that results in a B12 deficiency)," say the doctor who treated this patient. But it turned out that the women didn't even have pernicious anemia.
In spite of their efforts, the doctors never did find out why their patient has a low B12 level. She didn't have any of the typical symptoms of a deficiency. And her cells appeared normal. If it hadn't been for the test to determine the B12 level in her blood, the doctors may never have uncovered the problem.
Psychiatric problems - possibly the first symptom of B deficiency.
Fact is, psychiatric problems may be the first symptom of vitamin B12 deficiency, even before an anemia shows up. That's all the more reason for extra-careful screening of psychiatric patients, say the doctors who treated the woman. "We recommend consideration of B12 deficiency and serum (blood) B12 determinations in all patients with (severe) psychiatric symptoms." (American Journal of Psychiatry).
A RARE CASE OF BIOTIN DEFICIENCY
In another case, a doctor inadvertently created a problem of severe depression in one of his patients. The man, who was only 34 years old, had complications from an ulcer and was placed on total intravenous (I.V.) feedings containing every nutrient needed by the human body for survival - except biotin, a B vitamin.
Suicide by I.V.
His doctor soon learned what would happen if biotin were not in the diet. After about a month on the I.V. feedings, the patient developed a depression that continued to worsen during the next few months. He began to withdraw socially, was irritable, had feelings of hopelessness, severe insomnia, and suicidal thoughts. When he threatened to jump off the roof of the hospital, a psychiatrist was brought in. He recommended suicide precautions to be taken (including constant observation) and prescribed daily psychotherapy visits.
Biotin to the rescue.
His doctor reviewed the patient's I.V. feeding formula and realized that no biotin had been given for five months. A deficiency was suspected and supplementation begun immediately. After one week the patient was no longer suicidal. "He regained his ability to joke with the nurses," says his doctor. In fact, almost all of his symptoms disappeared over the first week of supplementation, and he has had no episodes of major depression since that time.
Only three of 12 hospitals supplied biotin.
Although this was an isolated case, there may be a larger number of patients at risk for developing biotin deficiency than has been previously thought. A survey of 12 hospitals in Westchester County, New York, revealed that only three institutions routinely added biotin to hyperalimentation solutions (I.V. feedings), and six never did so.
Minerals are essential to healthy moods, too. Case in point: iron.
HOW IRON FIGHTS FATIGUE
Iron-poor blood: is it an energy drain?
Michael Colgan, Ph.D., nutritional counsellor and author of Your Personal Vitamin Profile says quite a few of the tired people he sees have an iron deficiency. "Thy very often show what we call poor red blood status," he sys. "That is, their hematocrit, haemoglobin, and red blood cell count may not be in the anemic range, but they are low."
Sufficient for health, no.
"Unfortunately, what is considered a medically sufficient iron level is not sufficient for optimal health. Iron levels (in micrograms per cent) may vary between 45 and 200 and still be considered medically sufficient, but we have found that almost anyone with an iron level under 100 is not in good shape."
How iron works to stop fatigue.
Iron helps to form haemoglobin, the substance in our red blood cells that carries oxygen from lungs to the rest of the body. When you don't have enough haemoglobin the oxygen supply to your tissues is reduced, causing apathy, tiredness, pallor, shortness of breath, and irritability - that run-down feeling.
One study shows just how slowly you go compared to someone who's not iron deficient. Researchers at the University of California who studied the physical-work capacity of 75 women, some anemic, some not, found that the most severely anemic woman could stay on a treadmill and average of 8 minutes less than the non-anemic group. None of those severely anemic women could perform under the highest workload conditions, while all of the non-anemic group could. During a work test, the heartbeat of those with the severest anemia rose to an average of 176 per minute; for non-anemic, the heartbeat rose to just 130. Levels of lactate, a chemical in the muscles that is linked to fatigue, were almost twice as high in the most severely anemic group (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition). If you think you have an iron deficiency, see your doctor. Therapeutic doses to correct anemia or a pre-anemic state can be quite high initially, compared to a typical maintenance dose of 10 to 30 milligrams daily.
GROUCHY DISPOSITION?
The crucial 1 per cent.
"Ninety-nine per cent of our body calcium is present in the bones and teeth," writes Dr. Michael Lesser in Nutrition and Vitamin Therapy. "It is the other 1 per cent, present in the soft tissues and blood, which crucially affects the nerves... Calcium shortage may result in a grouchy, irritable, tense disposition, with depression, impairment of memory, insomnia, and cramping in the calves."
Dr. Lesser admits that extreme calcium deficiencies are rare. But he says, perhaps 30 per cent of the adult U.S. population suffers from a deficiency severe enough to cause the above symptoms.
Moderate deficiencies can also trigger symptoms that resemble an anxiety attack, Dr. Lesser reports. And, to compound the problem, anxious people frequently hyperventilate - which has the peculiar physiological effect of lowering blood calcium levels even further.
A NATURAL SEDATIVE
Magnesium is also known for its calming effects and some doctors frequently recommend it for anxiety, insomnia, and depression.
In one study, depressed patients had "significantly lower" blood levels of magnesium than healthy people (Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease).
In a second, depressed patients who took the drug lithium and improved, had a rise in their magnesium levels, while the magnesium levels of those who took lithium and didn't improve, stayed much the same (Lancet).
August F. Daro, M.D., a Chicago obstetrician and gynecologist, routinely gives all his depressed patients calcium and magnesium.
"Many depressed men and women are short on calcium and magnesium," says Daro. "I put them on a combination of 400 milligrams calcium and 200 milligrams magnesium a day. These minerals sedate the nervous system, and most of the depressed patients feel much better while taking them. Calcium and magnesium especially take care of pre-menstrual depression."
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