A study found that the high intake of foods rich in trans fat can result to an increased risk of depression while eating foods rich in healthy fats like olive oil helps in reducing the risk.

Trans Fat

Trans fats can come from different sources and they naturally occur in meats and dairy products. They are commonly formed when vegetable oil is partially hydrogenated which converts it into semi-solids for a variety of uses and food applications. Food manufacturers have been using trans fat since it has a more stable flavor and longer shelf life. But different studies had found out that trans fat can increase the levels of bad cholesterol in the blood and result to health problems like hypertension, cardiovascular disease, chronic illnesses and obesity.

A few cities in the United States, including New York, had banned the use of trans fat in the preparation of food in restaurants and other food establishments. In addition to the known adverse effects of trans fat, a study from Spain includes a higher risk of depression to the list.

Trans Fat Can Increase the Risk of Depression

Researchers from the University of Navarra in Spain found that the consumption of foods and other source rich in trans fat can result to an increased risk of depression while eating foods rich in healthier fatty acids like olive oil can have the opposite effect. The study was based on the results of the SUN project which consisted of the more than 12,000 Spanish volunteers. The researchers found that study participants with the most amount of trans fat intake had a 48 percent greater risk of developing depression than participants who had less or no trans fat consumption. Their findings were published in the open online access journal PloS One. The study also found that monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats like olive oil can lower the risk of depression.

The study was led by a professor of preventive medicine, Miguel Martinez. He noted that their study was based on a population with a very low trans fat intake. He added that, despite their limited trans fat consumption, they showed higher risk of suffering depression of about 50 percent. The trans fat consumption of the study participants only amounted to 0.4 percent of the total energy intake. Martinez explained that their findings are important especially to countries with high trans fat consumption like the United States which is at 2.5 percent.

The study participants consisted of more than 7000 women and 5000 men, whose ages averaged at 37. 5 years old. They were all part of the SUN project of the University of Navarra. The data gathered from the participants showed a strong link between trans fat intake and the risk of depression. The researchers said that the link was persistent and robust in each variation of the study. They were also able to observe the effects of healthier fats like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids from olive oil to the risk of depression and found that these can help in lowering the risk. But despite the promising results, Martinez and his team said that their study will need further support from more studies and trials.

Depression

Depression is a serious health condition that causes drastic changes in mood, behavior and physical well-being. It has been found to significantly affect a person’s life as well as the lives of other people around him.  It is thought to be caused by different environmental, psychological and physical factors. In most cases, depression develops after physical and/or psychological trauma. But it can also happen for no apparent reason. Most people experience depression only once in their entire lifetime but others may suffer from a series of episodes with short intervals in between. For severe cases, medication may need to be taken permanently. Though depression can cripple a person’s ability to function properly, it is relatively more treatable than other psychological conditions.

The symptoms of depression includes unexplainable physical problems like headaches and back pain, sudden urge to cry for no clear reason, suicidal thoughts, difficulty in remembering, making decisions, concentrating and thinking, feelings of guilt and worthlessness, moments of self-pity and self-blame, tiredness, fatigue and lack of energy, edginess and increased indecisiveness, restlessness and agitation, excessive sleeping or insomnia, reduced sex drive, and feelings of frustration, unhappiness and sadness due to small things. The symptoms can vary depending on the person’s age and gender.

Medical professionals look at different possible causes of depression. The condition can be caused by changes in brain chemistry, dysfunction of neurotransmitters, hormonal imbalance, genetic make-up, early childhood trauma and sad life events like the loss of a loved one.

Health Benefits of Olive Oil

Olive oil is good for the heath. It is one of the richest sources of healthy fatty acids like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. People living in the Mediterranean regions who have high olive oil consumption had been found to have better health and healthier hearts than people from other regions.

A study consisting of more than 5600 study participants found that following a Mediterranean diet can lower the risk of death from all natural causes. The researchers followed the participants for more than 6 years. They observed that people who are following a Mediterranean diet had 50 percent lower mortality rate than those who consumed foods rich in trans fat. They concluded that diet plans for the elderly needs to include more olive oil to promote longevity.

In 2004, the US Federal Drug Administration permitted the publication of claims saying that using olive oil can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Olive oil is not only rich in healthy fatty acids but it also contains health-promoting nutrients like phenolic compounds and antioxidants. The other compounds in olive oil like oleic acid and vitamin E prevents the oxidation of cholesterol and prevents it from creating plaques on the walls of the arteries. Olive oil also reduces the amount of free radicals in the body and the occurrence of inflammation. Health professionals recommend the regular use of olive for those with hypertensive conditions and people with high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Olive oil has also been found to improve the cell’s response to insulin, making it a good recommendation for people with diabetes.

Sources
whfoods.com
foodnavigator.com
mayoclinic.org
mayoclinic.com

Suffering from obesity and eating disorders has been linked to depression cases, a serious disorder that can worsen one’s health and prove to be fatal.

The latest report from Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index shows an alarming figure—that almost one-fourth of obese American citizens have all been diagnosed with depression. What is surprising is not that these people at some point in their lives were depressed, because every person may be at risk of developing the disease; but that the reported percentage exceeds the percentage of people with normal weight, who have simultaneously been clinically-diagnosed with the said psychiatric disorder.

Furthermore, the new survey shows that one out of four adult Americans that are obese have higher chances of reporting that they experience various negative emotions — such as anxiety, stress, sadness, anger — compared to those whose weight is considered normal. Gallup also noted that having a little extra weight does not yield the same effects of obesity, considering that results showed how the overweight respondents experienced negative emotions in almost the same league as those with normal weight.

The participants who were part of the conducted surveys were classified based on their body mass index scores — as calculated through the participants’ own reports regarding their weight and heights.

• Obese people were those whose BMI scores start from 30 and more.
• Overweight people were those whose BMI scores ranged from 25.0-29.9.
• Respondents with normal weight were those who yielded BMI values from 18.5 to 24.9.
• Underweight participants were those who yielded BMI scores below 18.5.

Based on these classifications, Gallup claimed that 36.3 % of Americans are currently overweight whereas 26.7 % are reportedly suffering from obesity. Simultaneously, 35 % of adult Americans currently enjoy a healthy or normal weight.

Revealing Survey Results: The Notable Obesity Factor

The yielded findings were based on over 250,000 interviews that were conducted within 8 months—from January to September of 2010. The following provides a breakdown of the significant survey results:

• 23.2 % of adults, all of whom are plagued with obesity, report that they suffer from depression based on clinical diagnosed; whereas only 14.9% of overweight people, 14.3% of normal-weight individuals, and 19.1% of people who are deemed to be underweight reported that they been diagnosed.
• 41.6 % of the obese individuals are prone to feeling all stressed up; whereas 39.4% of those with normal weight, and 42% of those who are underweight reportedly feel the same.
• 34.5 % of obese individuals reported that they worry; whereas 30.6% of those with normal weight, and 35.9% of those who are underweight said that they also worry.
• 15.7% of the obese people reportedly experience anger; whereas 12.6% of those with normal weight and 16% of underweight individuals also feel anger.
• 19.9 % out of the group of obese individuals experience sadness; where as 16.3% of those with normal weight, and 21.3% of underweight individuals reported that experienced sadness.

Such results also show the possibility for clinically-diagnosed depressed people to have higher chances of suffering from obesity, stress, and worry.

Link between Being Underweight and Being Depressed

Gallup claims that underweight people account for 1.7 % of adult American citizens. According to an email by Dan Witters, Gallup’s scientist on well-being, to WebMD — many underweight individuals suffer from eating disorders. This incidence significantly explains why the survey results showed that a large percent of those who are underweight have also been diagnosed as depressives. For one, both eating disorders called bulimia and anorexia have strong links to depression, regardless of the victim’s gender; and anorexia appears to have a strong relationship with women’s suicide-related deaths. He further said that in women-related cases, depression strikes prior to eating disorder.

Healthy and Natural Weight Loss and Weight Maintenance

Given the strong links between depression and obesity, along with being underweight; it is important for people who suffer from obesity and eating disorders to start anew and commit to a healthy weight loss and maintance plan, through maintaining and losing weight for better overall health—physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Setting manageable and healthy long-term goals

Setting one’s goals is the first important step before embarking on any attempt at weight loss or weight maintenance. During this preparatory stage, it is important to note that the best way to lose and maintain weight is to do so without losing one’s health.

Anyone who wants to take on the task of losing weight in a healthy manner must look far ahead, instead of merely counting a couple of days and a few weeks and wanting to see immediate, drastic results. Having a long-term horizon goal for weight loss and maintenance targets three essentials— safe weight loss and maintenance, successful weight loss and maintenance, and lasting or sustainable weight loss and maintenance. The ideal weight loss and maintenance plan should include proper and regulated exercise, eating a balanced and healthy diet on a regular basis, using natural supplements, changing one’s attitudes towards exercise and eating, and applying lifestyle modificaitons that can be continuously sustained.

Exercise

This suggestion does not pose itself as an option — it is essential and mandatory for optimal success. Ideally, the exercise program must include aerobic exercise for burning calories, through interval training; and weight-bearing exercise for burning calories during sleep, as achieved through muscle-building.

The exercise needs not to be immediately laborious. Starting with an enjoyable stroll and a light jog can be good boosters in order to enhance one’s metabolism and energy. Soon, the person becomes more capable of lengthening his allotted time for exercise routines, and adding more activities. A full exercise program that lasts around 30 minutes, done at least three times a week, is more than enough for healthy results.

Healthy diet to naturally cause weight loss and maintenance

While one is at the process of losing weight, it is essential to never forget that he must be wary of what he eats. It has been too repetitive to speak of how consuming a variety of fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, foods rich in calcium, and foods with high concentrations of healthy fats such as omega-3 fatty acids are important in one’s daily diet. However, these suggestions are cliches that never go wrong. Such foods offer multi-benefits that not only aid a healthy and natural weight loss and weight maintenance program, but also help in reducing one’s risk of developing unwanted diseases. Normal weight and good health can be achieved, simultaneously.

Supplements will not work as a magic pull by themselves, but their name already suggests their integral role— to further assist successful and sustainable weight loss and maintenance. Healthy supplements include green coffee bean extract and oolong tea, mulungu, bacopa, herbs and several others.

Furthermore, paying attention to what one eats enables the person to automatically refrain from foods that must be avoided—such as highly aunnatural fatty dishes, foods rich in sugar, and processed foods.

Paying attention to eating behavior and attitudes

Eating slowly poses several benefits, primarily through helping keep up with the time needed before the brain acknowledges that the person ise= already full, which usually takes up to 15 minutes. Furthermore, eating a lot as an option to attain comfort in the midst of negative emotions, such as tiredness or depression, must be avoided: Efforts to battle these negative emotions can be  diverted to other activities. It is also important not to skip breakfast, and to ensure that it accounts for the largest meal intake in the day. This attitude will stop the person from feeling unnecessarily hungry, and will also enhance his energy levels as he faces the day.

Sources
webmd.com
cdc.gov
nhlbi.nih.gov
jonbarron.org
flat-stomach-exercises.com

Vitamin D has been linked to many health conditions before. A recent study links insufficient levels of the vitamin with the disabling condition depression

In a recent study performed by researchers from the National Institute of Aging in the United States, insufficient levels of vitamin D may be the reason why many individuals over the age of 65 are experiencing symptoms of depression.

Senior individuals often have low levels of the important vitamin because they tend to stay indoors more often, as opposed to younger, more sprightly individuals with more active lifestyles. The study was published in a medical journal on endocrinology this year.

According to Luigi Ferrucci, the lead researcher, the emerging link between vitamin D deficiency and the occurrence of depression must be further investigated.  The study involved a follow-up testing of nearly one thousand male and female respondents within a six-year period.

The researchers used a specialized scale that measured the symptoms of depression called CES-D.  The researchers discovered that those with lower levels of vitamin D in their blood tended to have poorer score in the CES-D test.  Those with higher vitamin D percentages in their blood scored better in the same test.

Alarming, global trend

Depression is fast becoming one of the leading causes of disability around the world, not just in the United States.  It is estimated that today, there are 120 million people afflicted with the condition.  Ferrucci’s study is not the first to point at the possible link between the vitamin and depression.

In an earlier study carried out two years ago, Dutch researchers reported that insufficient levels of the vitamin in the body resulted in a higher percentage of the parathyroid hormone.

This hormone, which is used by the body to regulate calcium loss, has been directly linked to a higher incidence of depression in some one thousand two hundred respondents in yet another independent study.  This is the reason why a causal pathway must be mapped out to determine just how this vitamin affects the human brain.

In a fourth related study, researchers McCann and Arnes noted that vitamin D is important for the proper functioning and health of the human brain.  The widespread presence of vitamin D receptors throughout the human brain is evidence of the vital role of the nutrient in brain health.

According to yet another scientific review, vitamin D has been associated with affecting proteins in the human brain that are responsible for governing the learning process and remembering.  If an imbalance occurs in these areas, you can just imagine a chain reaction occurring throughout the brain.

Benefits of vitamin D

There are several ways that you can get vitamin D: natural exposure to sunlight, food (like dairy products, e.g. yogurt, milk, etc.) and through vitamin supplementation.  The body only needs about 10 – 15 minutes of exposure to natural sunlight to produce vitamin D on its own.

If this is not possible, people with low levels of vitamin D should explore vitamin supplementation; this applies most especially to senior individuals who may not be eating well or are unable to engage in a more active lifestyle.  Instead of using sunscreen when going out to get your healthy dose of sunshine, you can protect your skin naturally by taking natural antioxidants like fresh wheatgrass juice and citrus fruits.

The usual recommended dose for adults is between 400 to 800 IU (international units) of vitamin D everyday. Pregnant women should be given a higher dose (800 IU) to ensure optimum bone health and proper development of the fetus.

And there are more reasons to love vitamin D! Here are some of the most important benefits:

1. It is needed for proper absorption and utilization of calcium and phosphorous.  It is needed for the proper maintenance and repair of the bones and skin.

2. It strengthens and helps maintain the immune function of the body. Conditions like flu and the common cold can be warded off more efficiently if the immune system is strengthened by vitamin D.

3. It is an important nutrient that prevents the occurrence of MS (multiple sclerosis).  According to researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University, MS is less frequent in tropical countries because there is more available sunshine in these places than in temperate regions.

4. Vitamin D has also been linked to the maintenance of normal body weight (according to research from the Medical College of Georgia).

5. Vitamin D is important for brain health in the later years (60 – 79 years of age).

6. In a recent study from the Harvard Medical School, vitamin D can also reduce asthma attacks in asthmatic individuals.

7. We are exposed continually to low levels of radiation.  The good news is vitamin D can also help protect us from such exposures.

According to US cancer researchers, people with adequate levels of vitamin D have a lower risk for many types of cancer than people with low or inadequate levels of the vitamin.

Sources:
nutraingredients.com
healthvitaminsguide.com
medicalnewstoday.com

Almost 1/3 of anti-depressant drug studies were not published do to their unfavorable test results, as nearly all revealed they did not work as some studies claim they have. This type of selective publication can really hurt the public which are relying on these anti-depressant drugs to help them through their depression struggle. Unfortunately, this type of secretive testing has been going on for many years as no one wants to reveal the unsuccessful results of their drugs they would much rather re-write their study to sound more favorable than it actually is.

There are literally dozens of different drug tests and reports that are either not published due to their results or were re-written to show positive results through a complicated and wordy report meant to convey different results than were actually achieved. For anyone thinking of taking an anti-depressant or looking for a way to recover from their depression you may want to consider looking into more natural remedies that are both safe and successful. Why risk taking a drug that may not even work and may cause unwanted side effects when you cannot trust the drug reports available today? This is a sad truth about Western Medicine that is now on the surface causing many patients to not only question their doctors but the medications they have been trusting for years.

For anyone suffering from depression there are many natural remedies which can be trusted and used without fear of side effects. There are many different types of herbal remedies available to help you get through your depression and the number one herb is St. John’s Wort. This is an herb extract that has been proven to be more effective than anti-depressant medications such as Prozax, Poxil and more. St. John’s Wort is not only more effective but also has fewer side effects which are two great factors to make anyone switch from their prescribed medication to a more natural resolution.

If you are looking to relieve your depression symptoms but not interested in taking drugs there are many more alternative therapies such as massage, aromatherapy, yoga and meditation, which are proven to help not only with depression symptoms but with many different issues in life. Alternative health remedies are becoming far more popular and people are beginning to see how natural remedies may be that much more effective than prescription medications and from this study they can be more trusted as well!

• 1 in 5 women in America suffer from clinical depression
• Less than 30 percent of people report being “deeply happy”
• Of the thousands of thoughts that go through the mind daily, 80 percent of them are negative
• Everyone in the world will be affected by depression, whether they experience it themselves or through friends or family members
• The World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, depression will be the second largest killer after heart disease
• As of 2002, the rate of increase in depression among children is nearly 25 percent
• Among depressed African American men, 92 percent do not seek treatment

These statistics are enough to make anyone depressed. It’s a disease that affects all aspects of life—personal as well as professional. Reports claim that employers lose some $51 billion in lost productivity due to absenteeism and poor performance while on the job.

In an effort to relieve depression and its destructive symptoms, people often turn to antidepressants like Prozac and Zoloft for treatment. While these medications work for some, they don’t work for everyone. In fact, according to the British Journal of Psychiatry, antidepressants help less than half of those treated. Further, according to a report from the Washington Post in 2004, they sometimes lead to suicide, brain tumors and psychosis.

With all this negative news it is with great relief that I report some positive news from the world of natural health with regards to the treatment of depression. Because according to a report released by Chinese Medical News, the bark from magnolia trees is an effective treatment for depression.

Historically as well as today, magnolias have been used for a wide range of medical maladies. For example, the key components found in magnolia bark—i.e. honokiol and magnolol—have been used to treat lung and intestinal disorders. They’ve also been used to treat stroke, headache and anxiety.

With this in mind, researchers from Nanjing University in China tested the serotonin levels of rats to see what impact honokiol and magnolol had on them. When the rats were fed these compounds, their serotonin levels increased. Serotonin is a hormone found in the brain that is linked to one’s mood. The higher the levels, the higher the mood.

These compounds have been found to do other amazing things as well. Not only do they serve as a natural antidepressant, but they have also been used as an effective treatment in mice with colorectal cancer by inhibiting tumor growth, as well as having anti-inflammatory properties in the treatment of atherosclerosis, a disease that affects the blood vessels.

Again, while magnolia may seem like a foreign treatment to us here in America, its holistic healing powers are well known at the international level. It’s well worth the time for consumers and researchers alike to further investigate magnolia in the hopes of making it more mainstream than it already is.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for more positive news on how best to treat depression naturally, as its deleterious effects are felt the world over.