This is why a person who has an inflammatory disorder such as heart disease or arthritis is more likely to develop depression. Chronic stress causes an inflammatory cascade, leading to an increased likelihood of developing diseases linked to inflammation, and those inflammatory disorders increase the risk of depression. We believe inflammation is a critical factor in the mind-body connection. Heart disease, HIV, lupus, arthritis, diabetes, obesity, chronic pain and several forms of cancer have also been called inflammatory disorders. Chronic stress causes the body to produce high levels of cortisol, which can lead to depression, but depression itself ramps up the cortisol, which worsens the depression.ĭepression isn’t the only illness found to be caused by inflammation. If cortisol is a key culprit, is stress a leading cause of depression? They damage the glial cells, which causes them to release more cytokines, causing an inflammatory cascade. Instead, they start spitting out proteins called pro-inflammatory cytokines. Too much cortisol causes the glial cells to stop working properly. Depression can provoke chronically high levels of cortisol, the hormone that we produce when under stress. These are the brain’s caretakers: they supply the neurons with nutrients and oxygen, protect the brain from infections, and clean up the brain’s waste products, such as dead neurons. To understand what inflammation is and how it causes depression, you need to understand the role of the brain’s glial cells. In your book, you say that depression should be considered an inflammatory illness. She spoke to The Globe and Mail about cortisol, blueberry cures and why talking to someone is always a good idea. Diane McIntosh, a Vancouver-based psychiatrist, and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia and author of the new book, This is Depression: A Comprehensive, Compassionate Guide for Anyone who Wants to Understand Depression. One of Canada’s leading proponents of this thesis is Dr. The idea is that chronic stress causes hormonal dysregulation, and this leads to depression and other inflammatory disorders, such as arthritis, lupus, heart disease and even some forms of cancer. Now, a new theory about the cause of depression has emerged: That it is a disease caused by the body’s immune system. Canada has the world’s fourth-highest use of these drugs, according to a recent study from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. At the same time, so too has the consumption of antidepressants. Rates of depression have risen by more than 18-per-cent worldwide since 2005, according to the World Health Organization. This viewpoint helped reduce the stigma around mental illness, but did not provide a cure-all. Haunting and brave, Up Ghost River is a necessary step toward our collective healing.The idea that depression might be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain – and not a moral failing – grew in popularity with the invention of the drug Prozac in the late ‘80s, and later with the marketing of this and other antidepressants. His story gives a personal face to the problems that beset First Nations communities and fresh solutions, and untangles the complex dynamics that sparked the Idle No More movement. His work championing Indigenous knowledge, sovereignty and rights spans several decades and has won him awards and national recognition. Metatawabin has worked tirelessly to bring traditional knowledge to the next generation of Indigenous youth and leaders, as a counsellor at the University of Alberta, Chief in his Fort Albany community, and today as a youth worker, First Nations spiritual leader and activist. By listening to elders' wisdom, he learned how to live an authentic First Nations life within a modern context, thereby restoring what had been taken from him years earlier. He later left behind his wife and family, and fled to Edmonton, where he joined a First Nations support group that helped him come to terms with his addiction and face his PTSD. Leaving high school, he turned to alcohol to forget the trauma. At his residential school-one of the worst in Canada-he was physically and emotionally abused, and was sexually abused by one of the staff. After being separated from his family at age 7, Metatawabin was assigned a number and stripped of his Indigenous identity. A powerful, raw and eloquent memoir about the abuse former First Nations chief Edmund Metatawabin endured in residential school in the 1960s, the resulting trauma, and the spirit he rediscovered within himself and his community through traditional spirituality and knowledge.
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