Managing Depression the Eat Burn Sleep Way
Hello, I’m Yalda Alaoui, I’m an Inflammation Pioneer and Nutritional Therapist.
If you suffer from depression, anxiety or any mental health disorder this is a great video for you to watch. So what’s amazing these days is mental health is no longer a taboo and it’s very much in the public debate. I feel grateful for that because it is a health condition like any other.
Talking about things a lot, expressing our feelings, and going to therapy, we tend to forget that it is a physiological issue and in fact, depression, anxiety, and all major mental disorders (MMDs) are linked to chronic inflammation.
Depression and Inflammation
Many studies show that patients with depression, bipolar disorders, and schizophrenia have elevated inflammation markers. A study has shown that the brains of deceased people with depression have higher levels of inflammation than other subjects and that is neuroinflammation. The literature is there.
I have actually, when I was in nutrition school, written a 29-page paper on depression and I was completely horrified by the fact that in the public debate, we do not talk about the impacts of diets and lifestyle on depression symptoms.
In the UK, in the past year, one in five adults has suffered a bout of depression. About 50% of patients with depression who are prescribed medication report feeling no better 18 months later despite the medical treatment. The reason for that – it’s not me saying this, studies are there showing this, and I link them all for you in the platform – is chronic inflammation leads to medication resistance.
Depression, Medication Resistance, and Inflammation
So at the beginning, you might have depression, you’re put on antidepressants, you start feeling better, and you have quite a bit of the upside of antidepressants and not much of the downside. And as time goes by you feel like you’re back to square zero. It’s because inflammatory processes create medication resistance and the disease itself creates more inflammation in the body.
Anti-Inflammatory Case Study
I have had incredible success stories for people with depression. I even have a lady, Kirsten, and she’s kindly shared her story to the press as a case study through videos; you can go and check it out. Kirsten had been suffering from depression for 20 years. She also interestingly had other inflammatory issues including dermatitis, which is inflammation of the skin, and she also had excess weight gain, and obesity is an inflammatory disease. And these days, inflammation is running high worldwide, chronic inflammation, and that’s why I believe we have an obesity pandemic.
So she jumped on the lifestyle, and she has lost four stone, is no longer on medication for depression, her dermatitis has disappeared, and she has the highest energy level, really good mental clarity, focus, and happiness. The reason for that is the Eat Burn Sleep lifestyle focuses on dietary changes, anti-inflammatory movements, and mental wellness.