Study Suggests Digestive Problems Early In Life May Increase Risk For Depression

Quoted Text

"The gut and the brain are hardwired together by the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain to the body's internal organs" said Pasricha. "In addition, the gut has its own nervous system that is relatively independent. So the communication between the gut and the adult brain is elaborate and bi-directional, and changes in the gut are signaled directly to the brain."

I think so!  It sure was true in my case.  

The main thrust of the study is that digestive problems during formative years can affect depression risk in adulthood, long after the digestive problems are "resolved".

I have personally noticed improvements in mood and mood stability as my gut and body have healed.

Interesting. I didn't have any obvious GI problems when I was little, yet I was very prone to depression since childhood.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

Interesting. I didn't have any obvious GI problems when I was little, yet I was very prone to depression since childhood.

I ditto that.  I started having GI problems in my 20s.  But prone to depression from the start.
For me, I think gluten was the cause.

http://glutendoctors.blogspot.com/2009/04/gluten-sensitivity-and-depression-on.html

Yes.

I have had digestion problems since I was a young child.  I was always underweight.  I am sure gluten was part of it.  

Interesting.  

I attribute my gut damage to heavy gluten consumption throughout my life.  Eliminating the gluten definitely lifted my mood a lot.  I still have healing continuing in my gut and I still notice a connection when IBS flares up and my state of mind turns melancholy.

Quoted from RedLilac

Interesting.  

Please elaborate!  I'm sure you have some interesting thoughts on this yourself.

Quoted Text

"The gut and the brain are hardwired together by the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain to the body's internal organs" said Pasricha. "In addition, the gut has its own nervous system that is relatively independent. So the communication between the gut and the adult brain is elaborate and bi-directional, and changes in the gut are signaled directly to the brain."

I am not depressed as such.. but I was prone to feeling 'blue' all my life without even knowing it UNTIL I went off sugar 35 years ago.. after two month I suddenly felt that I had no longer that feeling of blues .. independent of the fact that medicine had just about discovered them and people started to write about 'sugar blues' .. I was a test case for it..

I agree whole heartedly with anyone who connects the gut with the brain.. depression yes, could be, sort temper, could be, anger because one did not feel well, could be, frustration for the same reasons, could be, sleep or nightmare issues could be, yes, I can see where it all could be..

I was underweight as a kid, and over weight later, both are bad as people always comment in the wrong way (me included) There is just such on issue with being 'looked' at to decide if we fit in or not... and now-a-days being judged for having any sort of fat isssues.. all contribute to some depression that I am sure of.

The good thing.. here - we eat right and that feeling of blueness leaves after a while and life is good again.. (cut out all WHITE sugar)

BUT I might be careful about the word DEPRESSION, as that might be a clinical issue that needs even more allergy considerations.. however here we can deal with the blues .. the other will follow.

I think though, that every really 'depressed' person ought to keep a food journal, writitng about taste feelings, memories and habits, to see if there are further clues to what certain foods might trigger. I would be near certain that in the end they relate to food first and foremost.  As the gut is connected to the brain.. especially when you know that the gut was (worm like at first) from which all other organs grew from.. and just as each organ is impermeable to and from the outside-protected by a skin- so is the gut and the brain..still connected by a interesting, interactive skin/communication system.  

We react to foods so fast, that we only have to vaguly think of some flavor ot tast to 'feel' it's effect, even before we buy it. So years of wrong foods indeed could make a brain be unhappy.. but I think a lot of it might be reversable.   ONe doctor wrote that 80% of all mental illness is caused by allergies and that old mental institutions (or todays prisons) could be emptied if only we would study this further - person by person.   Maybe all we would need is a pill that inhibits the uptake of foods-- some what like Prilosec??????????     just immagine this.. a whole new world..  

Interesting article.


We are not rats.

Is it what we eat, genetics, or life trauma that causes depression?  I think it is a combination of all 3.  Long before I read anything on the food connection I knew that sugar sent my mother on a high then a major crash where she might not get out of bed for days.  Meat would help stabilize her.  Her mother also suffered depression.  My mother was the 8th birth, but had to live with her aunt after birth because my grandmother got sick.  The same thing happened when I was born.  Why were some of my mother’s siblings prone to depression, but others not.

Neither my son nor I am big sugar eaters.  We were turned off by it by seeing the effect it had on my mother.  I notice how certain foods make me feel like finger nails on a chalk board while others calm me down.  

Am I sensitive because of what my mother ate which would have been in her breast milk?  I wouldn’t have been breast fed for long since I went to live with relatives at less than 6 weeks old.  6 weeks is when my Great Aunt broke her arm & I got transferred to someone else. I don’t know old I was when I went to the same aunt that cared for my mother as a baby.  I breast fed my son for years mixed with formula & solid foods.  Maybe my mother and I were taken off of breast milk too soon.  The article talks about early life but it doesn’t identify a critical window.

The article talks about digestion in the first few days of life might have the most impact on depression later in life. That's fascinating! Maybe that's why human babies only get colustrum for the first 3 days of life to protect their digestion? Calves won't survive unless they get their mother's colostrum.


http://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/calves-need-colostrum-to-survive/8035.html

Quoted from Sharon

The article talks about digestion in the first few days of life might have the most impact on depression later in life. That's fascinating! Maybe that's why human babies only get colustrum for the first 3 days of life to protect their digestion? Calves won't survive unless they get their mother's colostrum.


http://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/calves-need-colostrum-to-survive/8035.html

And what about babies who were never breast fed?  My mother told me she tried to nurse
me but I rejected her.  I can't imagine this to be true...except to think that she might not have
wanted me to nurse....and I picked up her negative energy.  I was her first born...she didn't
nurse my sisters.  Perhaps she was just uncomfortable with the whole process. I will never know.

So without having been breast fed, that explains depression later in life.  Although my mother
and her sibs were breast fed....I thought most of them had various levels of depression.

My mind still bounces back to the damage in the gut....whether it came from gluten or gluten
further damaged lectin damage.

Quoted from Sharon

The article talks about digestion in the first few days of life might have the most impact on depression later in life. That's fascinating! Maybe that's why human babies only get colustrum for the first 3 days of life to protect their digestion? Calves won't survive unless they get their mother's colostrum.


http://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/calves-need-colostrum-to-survive/8035.html

Well then, it's scary to think what my mental health might have been like if I'd been formula fed! I wonder, too, what my health could have been like if my Mom had heard of BTD before I was born, and wasn't consuming any wheat or dairy while pg and nursing me. But that information hadn't been (re?) discovered at that time.

I think my mother only breast fed me for 3 months.  I breast fed my first born for a year and the second one for 18 months.  They both eat gluten and I am trying to talk them out of it.  Firstborn is an A+ and second is AB+.

I was a picky eater as a kid but could digest anything till I had a tonsillectomy then somehow got an ulcer.  Still not convinced I really had one.  My depression started at puberty hello because  of all the hormonal stuff then I got FAT!  

the digestion might have as much to do with eating as all other aspects of living, a good start is important.  

BUT in my book not as important as is the right food for the right blood type.. I think that should or would trump all other differences.  

that's it while I tried to make understood if somebody is driven by the sympaticus or parasympaticus .... btw... Dr.D's dad describes as as driven by similar kinetic energies as the A's... yup not that bad... lucky bum I am,  my B-part provides the needes balance ....

Very interesting, though I wish they had specified the times in rat life coinciding with human development that had the long term effects.  It sounds like it's a window in time very early on when the brain and gut (aka second brain http://altmedangel.com/gutbrain.htm) is still developing.  There must be other times when long term effects can occur in the gut which must affect the mind, e.g. after an ulcer.

Yep, I fit the bill, had allergy to dairy formula after Mum couldn't breastfeed me and then they switched me to soy and I was better.  Was a very picky eater.  Then at 7 I got german measles and since then I've had bad IBS, depression and anxiety (much better thanks to Dr D).  (could be measles in my gut recurring I read)

My DD had colic (maybe that's one gut problem they are talking about or only short term infections?) even though I was breastfeeding her.  She's an anxious type, probably aspergers we're getting her checked out.  She also had low birth weight due to my severe preeclampsia (HELLP syndrome), 6 weeks premature and hypoxia during induced birth followed by emergency caesarian  

I wonder how a lot of this could be because of allergies that were held early in life kind of setting the thermostat for life?! I hope they find out more soon.

It's interesting how they give out antidepressants like lollies but few are aware that serotonin is 95% in the gut not much in the brain at all!  
It's also involved in bone formation! http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100216/msgs/937209.html

I find it interesting that many seeds are high in serotonin so that they induce peristalsis (digestion through the gut) for a fast exit to be (they hope) germinated!

Quoted from Symbi

I find it interesting that many seeds are high in serotonin so that they induce peristalsis (digestion through the gut) for a fast exit to be (they hope) germinated!

lol very good point!!

lol Possum!  It didn't really fit in with the topic but is kinda related, like a bird is to the dinosaurs I guess! Like most of my posts always end up about poop in the end.  

All food ends up as poop in the end. Coming out the end.

Also, a lot of nutrition-related forum discussions "end up" talking about poop as well.

lol Symbi!!! Says something, I guess??!!

so maybe we should swallow some seeds whole???

I read an article years ago about sugar and depression. I always wondered why the depression would be worse around holiday times. Made total sense after reading the it. I would consume more junk around those times. I changed my diet and it is gone. Now I only feel a little depressed when I get my monthly.

lol Symbi!!! Says something, I guess??!!

Yep, I'm full of it!

Quoted from Goldie

so maybe we should swallow some seeds whole???

Well there's the blood brain barrier that stops serotonin being absorbed directly from the gut to the brain.  But the serotonin helps the gut move digestion along that's for sure.  I love goji berries for instance!  Wouldn't try any old seed lots could be poisonous (even peach seeds are)! Though some people may find them too harsh.

Was just a freaky fact I was throwing out there!