Can Depression Be A Vitamin Deficiency?
The increase in our ability to understand the individual as unique, and to personalize treatment is one of the most exciting developments in medicine. Functional Medicine is personalized medicine! Understanding the variables when it comes to personal nutrition needs can be crucial in the path towards healing. Multiple factors may affect your personal level and need for specific vitamins and minerals. These can include genetics, prescription medications, and your ability to absorb and transport them.
Vitamins And Minerals For Proper Brain Functioning
There are many vitamins and minerals crucial to proper brain functioning; B vitamins, Magnesium, Zinc, Vitamin D, and Vitamin C to name a few. Up to 80% of Americans are deficient in at least one, and usually more, nutrients.
A few fun facts:
- With low levels of B6 and B12, antidepressant medication is not likely to work.
- Magnesium regulates your stress response, and two-thirds of us fail to consume the recommended daily intake.
- A common genetic variant (MTHFR) decreases the ability to metabolize folic acid and is implicated in depression and heart disease.
- Common medications like proton-pump inhibitors and Metformin can lower your ability to absorb B12.
The list goes on and on.
Food Is Information
The best news is that food is information! Today you can choose more nutrient-dense food to replenish your system. There’s a lot to discuss and no one eating pattern is right for everyone.
My suggestion to you is to make sure you eat at least 5 servings of colored fruits and vegetables per day. This will get you ahead of the curve and can be a good place to start. If you want to start tracking, and you’re curious how many nutrients a serving of a whole food has, you can use the computational engine Wolfram Alpha and it will give you the data right away!
There is a lot to digest in this area (pun intended) and at times more advanced evaluation and nutritional testing can be useful tools to help the process along!
