Did you know that antidepressant drugs represent a $10 billion dollar market in the U.S. alone? These drugs are based on the chemical imbalance theory presuming that low serotonin levels can cause anxiety and depressive disorders. However, the chemical imbalance theory as a cause for anxiety and depressive disorders never was true. In fact, no experiment has ever shown that anyone has an ‘imbalance’ of any neurotransmitters or any other brain chemicals. The entire theory was hypothetical.
Over the last ten years, many professionals tried to refute the chemical imbalance theory. According to David D. Burns, (When Panic Attacks)
“This theory is fueled more by drug company marketing than by solid scientific proof. Billions of dollars of annual profits from the sale of antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications are at stake, so drug companies spend vast amounts of money promoting the chemical imbalance theory. They also subsidize a large portion of the budget of the American psychiatric Association and underwrite an enormous amount of research and education at medical schools.”
“Academic research should be all about getting to the truth. Drug company research is all about selling new products.”
“But if I tell you that your depression or panic attacks result from a chemical imbalance in your brain, then I’m telling you something that can’t be proven, because there is no test for a chemical imbalance in the human brain.”
Recent research is showing that depression is an allergic reaction to inflammation
Inflammation is the body’s natural response to infection, injury or foreign invasion, and when inflammation is triggered, the body produces many chemicals, such as cytokines. Tim de Chant of NOVA writes: “Inflammation is our immune system’s natural response to injuries, infections, or foreign compounds. When triggered, the body pumps various cells and proteins to the site through the blood stream, including cytokines, a class of proteins that facilitate intercellular communication. It also happens that people suffering from depression are loaded with cytokines.”
Inflammation is caused by obesity, high sugar diets, high quantities of trans fats, unhealthy diets in general, and other causes.
Inflammation and Gluten
The most common culprit of inflammation is gluten. When gluten enters the intestinal lining, it then enters the bloodstream and eventually reaches the brain where it causes inflammation. Consequently, inflammation in the brain may develop into a neurological disorder such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, seizures and even schizophrenia.
Amylase trypsin inhibitors (ATIs for short) that can provoke an inflammatory immune response in the GI tract by stimulating immune cells. This occurs in people regardless of whether they have celiac disease or not.
Try to look for possible causes of inflammation such as infection, food intolerances, autoimmune disease, gluten intolerance.
References:
Brietzke E, Stertz L, et al. Comparison of cytokine levels in depressed, manic and euthymic patients with bipolar disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 2009 Aug; 116(3): 214-217.
Harrison NA, Brydon L, Walker C, et al. Neural origins of human sickness in interoceptive responses to inflammation. Biological Psychiatry, 2009 Sept 1; 66(5): 415-422.
http://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety/chemical-imbalance.shtml
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