Researchers have found that meditation slows the progression of HIV the virus which causes AIDS.

Meditation strengthens the body’s immune system weakened by HIV. The immune system and depression is also closed linked however scientists don’t know whether depression compromises the body or a decrease in our body’s ability to resist disease somehow causes depression.

The Study Shows Meditation Helps the Immune System , reported by UCLA’s Daily Bruin, demonstrated that the T cell blood count for HIV patients who mediated was higher than those in the control group who didn’t practice mindful awareness.

Mediation appears to strengthen the immune system by reducing stress. The practice helps people live in the present moment and avoid ruminating over negative thoughts and emotions.

UCLA is at the forefront of meditation research and education through its Mindful Awareness Research Center.

A UCLA professor Jeffrey Schwartz, has developed a ground breaking technique combing mindful awareness and cognitive behavior therapy to help Obsessive Compulsive Disorder patients successfully manage their own illness. See for more

If you have depression the good news is that the mental anguish you suffer is not a risk factor in heart attacks or stroke. However certain physical symptoms of depression are linked to atherosclerosis, hardening of the coronary arteries, which does cause heart attacks and stroke.

A study reported in the HealthDay News, “found that depressive symptoms, but not anxiety and anger, were associated with greater thickening of the arteries over time. Further analyses indicated that only the physical symptoms of depression were associated with thickening arteries, while the cognitive and emotional symptoms of depression, such as sadness, pessimism, and indecisiveness, were not related.”

Depression’s specific physical symptoms associated with atherosclerosis are:

• Lack of sleep;
• Poor appetite;
• and fatigue.

Dr Jessie Stewart explains why the distinction between cognitive/and or emotional symptoms versus physical symptoms is important for people at risk for heart attack or stroke..

“Identifying the most harmful aspect of depression is important, because we will then know which specific components to target with our treatments.”

The best strategy is to address and manage depression up front. The good news is that you will reduce negative thinking and emotional suffering while eliminating a risk factor for atherosclerosis.

According to an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Cain may have had depression years after he slew Abel.

“Poor sibling relationships in childhood may be an important and specific predictor of major depression in adulthood.”

This is the conclusion reached by the study, Childhood Sibling Relationships as a Predictor of Major Depression in Adulthood: A 30 Year Prospective. The research goes to explain,

“How might we understand the finding that sibling relationships were more important predictors than relationships with parents? For most adults, the capacity to relate well with peers is central to both occupational and social functioning. Sibling relationships may help children develop specific capacities to mobilize interpersonal resources, and these capacities may promote emotional well-being in adulthood.”

If Cain did have mental illness, this paled in comparison to some other problems which were of Biblical proportions.

This charitable organization has published a booklet entitled Health Eating and Depression: How Diet May Protect Mental Health.

The organization and the author’s credentials provide credibility as does this quote, “Research in this area is still underway so it is not possible to draw any firm conclusions but the evidence does suggest that it is worth trying to follow a healthy diet in order to protect our mental health.”

In other words they are not promising the world or suggesting that if you follow this you won’t have to take medication.

But they are saying “the jury is still out but based on the evidence these are the most helpful recommendations we have.”

I’ve summarized the general recommendations and how they impact depression.

1. Eat regularly throughout the day

“Missing meals, especially breakfast, leads low blood sugar and this causes low mood, irritability and fatigue.”

2. Choose less refined high sugar foods and drinks and more wholegrain cereals,
pulses, fruit and vegetables

“Sugary foods are absorbed quickly into the bloodstream (they may also be referred to as high glycaemic index foods. This may cause an initial ‘high’ or surge of energy that soon wears off as the body increases insulin production, leaving you feeling tired and low.”

3. Include protein at each meal

“the amino acid tryptophan, is important in its effect on the brain, where it influences mood.”

4. Eat a wide variety of foods

“The more varied your diet, the more likely you are to obtain all the nutrients you… Make sure you include 2 portions of different fruits and/or vegetables and a protein food at each meal. Include some red meat or fish as they a good sources of B12 another nutrient that seems associated with the control of mood.”

5. Include oily fish (omega 3 fatty acids) in your diet

“Supplements of omega 3 oils may reduce symptoms inpatients with depression on antidepressant medications.”

6. Maintain a healthy weight

“Both excessive weight loss or weight gain can make your mood worse and should be avoided. Weight loss and lack of good nutrition will deprive the brain of glucose and other nutrients that control mood.”

“Putting on weight unintentionally or feeling out of control of your eating can increase your depression and can lead to yo-yo dieting which leaves you further out of control.”

7. Maintain adequate fluid intake

“The early effects of even mild dehydration can affect our feelings and performance, often characterised by restless or irritable behaviour… loss of concentration and reduced effi ciency in mental tasks.”

8. If you drink alcohol keep within recommended limits

“Alcohol has a depressant effect on the brain so can result in a rapid worsening of your mood. It is also a toxin that has to be deactivated by the liver. During this detoxifi cation process the body uses thiamin, zinc and other nutrients and this can deplete your reserves, especially if your diet is poor.”

9. Exercise regularly

“Exercise leads to the release of endorphins – feel good chemicals that help us to relax and to feel happy. Exercise is particularly important for those withdepression as it also gives structure and purpose to the day. Outdoor exercise that exposes us to sunlight is especially valuable as it affects the pineal gland, directly
boosting mood”

Baby boomer are accidentally killing themselves with overdoses of prescription painkillers, anti-anxiety and sleep medication at a faster rate than any other group. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog.

This is the fate that befell Batman’s Joker Heath Ledger. The total accidental prescription overdoses were 22770 in 2004 rising 700 percent since 1983. The Associated Press reports that, “The increase deaths was highest among baby boomers, people in their 40s and 50s.”

Perhaps the young are now beginning a new trend with the use of antidepressants.

Read this People Magazine piece on Anna Nicole Smith’s son Pathologist: Meds Killed Daniel Smith.

Because antidepressants (SSRIs) increase the potential for suicidal thinking and behavior in adolescents, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners recommends significant qualifications around when and if these medications are to be considered in the treatment of a child.

The College recommends that antidepressants be considered only when cognitive therapy has failed and only if:

• The depression is “so severe that it interferes with the young person’s capacity to engage in counseling.”
• “or the depression is life threatening”.

No such recommended qualifications were found for family doctors in the US.

Science Daily reports that the first clinical double-blind study of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treatment of depression is being conducted by St Jude Hospital. However it’s Canada which has led the way in this form of therapy.

DBS stimulates the brain using electrical current from a device that is implanted near the collar bone and connected to electrical leads to targeted areas of the brain. Mild current is sent to an area of the brain called Broadman 25 which has been previously identified by Canadian researchers as overly active in people suffering major clinical depression.

The Toronto Globe Mail has a story Mending a Broken Mind which interviews Sean Miller a young man who is using the DBS device after years of suffering. There is also lots of information about the procedure; more in-depth coverage of how DBS works; and the people behind making Canada the pioneer in using electrical current to treat depression.

Who knows? Thomas Edison may eclipse designer drugs, gene therapy and Sigmund Freud all together.

All the controversy over whether or not drug money is corrupting psychiatric practice is helping to break trust between doctors and patient.

Stories of Harvard psychiatrists taking big money from pharmaceutical companies; and then through their institutional influence push antipsychotics on kids based on questionable bipolar diagnoses (Harvard Psychiatrists Flunk Appearance of Propriety) and the lack of drug company payment disclosure by psychiatrists who present themselves in the media as medical experts (Stealth Marketers) destroy the crediblity of the profession.

Tara Parker-Pope explains the dissolution of trust in her NYT article Doctors and Patients: A Rocky Relationship.

• “About one in four patients feel that their physicians sometimes expose them to unnecessary risk, according to data from a Johns Hopkins study published this year in the journal Medicine. And two recent studies show that whether patients trust a doctor strongly influences whether they take their medication.”

Most people are reluctant to get psychiatric treatment in the first place because of the stigma of mental illness. Now a wall has been built between doctor and patient.

Parker Pope offers other reasons for patient distrust:

• Doctors have to spend less time with their clients do to “declining reimbursements and higher costs”.;
• Media reporting of medical errors;
• Direct-to-consumer advertising of medications have encouraged people to research their own aliments.

If there is reform and greater transparency in the psychiatric community and a more equal partnership between between doctor and patient, trust could be restored. However these patient demands are nonnegotiable.

As you might imagine Jon Stewart of Comedy Central has a little different take on the academic contributions to the field of happiness. Professor Tal Ben-Shahar’s author of Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fullfillment made the unfortunate decision, for Tal, to be interviewed on Jon’s show. See Tal Ben-Shahar interview.

As counterpoint you will find reviews of John Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom and Tal Ben-Shahar’s book in OhmyNews. an English language Korean publication.

The books are inspired by the discipline of positive psychology which began 10 years ago; and use research data to make their point.

The positive psychology movement has changed the face of mental health. Instead of focusing exclusively on pathology, this new discipline helps people develop and maintain a sense of wellbeing. This is a good thing.

National Public Radio devoted its show Science Friday to a debate between a psychiatrist who maintains that depression is not a disease and one who thinks that depression is a medical illness.

The two principals were:

• Harvard trained Dr James Gordon who founded and directs The Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington. Dr Gordon is the author of a new book Unstuck which prescribes a holistic program to deal with depression
• and Dr Peter D. Kramer who teaches at psychiatry at Brown University and practices psychiatry in Rhode Island. Dr Kramer is the author of many books including Listening to Prozac and Against Depression. The latter argues that the term depression has many meanings in our culture but most important is the fact that depression is a medical illness.

What is Depression

To Gordon, depression is a signal that something in one’s life is out of balance and can be a beginning to transformational change where a person can become unstuck and move forward.

On the other hand, Kramer sees depression as a cluster of disease traits and symptoms:

• Level of pain;
• Runs in families;
• Disruptions in normal brain activity;
• Co-morbidity with other illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease;
• And tendency to be recurrent and progressive.

So depression looks, smells and acts like a disease to Kramer.

Causes of Depression

Dr Kramer pressed his point that a depressed person’s brain activity and anatomy is abnormal. The head of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine responded that everything in the human body has biological manifestations.

Dr. Gordon believes that the primary response to depression should be a integrated program which includes meditation, relaxation, nutrition and exercise and help for the patient see the world and himself differently. Dr Kramer doesn’t write off these techniques but stresses that depression interferes with the ability to function which impacts careers and relationships and is dangerously associated with strokes, suicide and heart disease.

Depression and Medication

Gordon pointed out that recent antidepressant studies have shown them to be less effective that previously reported. The reason for this, according to Kramer is that the standards of research study have been raised:

• Studies now are based on larger samples of people;
• People are screened more rigorously before they come into to a study;
• And a closer review is conducted on the people who seemed to improve on the drug.

Dr. Kramer also mentioned that the studies of the effectiveness of psychotherapy has shown lesser results recently because the test bar in research studies has been set higher.

Dr Gordon maintains that usually stress is the primary cause of depression and the patient should first be guided through a multidisciplinary program; and that medication is the treatment of last resort for the very small percentage of people don’t respond to holistic treatment.

Morality and Spirit

During one exchange as Dr Gordon was making the point that a person needed to be guided through his program so that the patient could learn to help himself. Dr Kramer reacted by saying that the use of the word “guide” had a moral and spiritual feel to it that made him uncomfortable. Gordon responded by saying that doctors do help to save souls and they have a moral duty to do so. Kramer acknowledged that religion or spirituality can be very important to the patient.

A lot of what Dr Gordon had to say makes sense. In an ideal world, I would agree with his approach. Medications should be the last resort and not the first.

The profession of psychiatry is in a crisis. Efficacy claims for both psychotherapy and medications have been dropping based on new research studies. To be in the position of saying the reason the two treatments looked good a few years ago is due to bad research practices is devastating.

But there are elements of both our culture and the human equation that neither doctor brought up that explains what’s going on:

• Insurance companies have reduced psychiatrists to pill dispensers because it’s cheaper for a patient to spend 15 minutes talking with a doctor who then writes a prescription and sends them out the door. Of course the psychiatrist will prescribe a med, he’s a human being and wants to help is patient.
• Most people don’t have the time, interest or energy to participate in a multidisciplinary holistic program. Dr Gordon has stories in his book about people who have stretched themselves and been successful but they are very much the exception and not the rule. So the idea of taking a pill is probably the most attractive option for people.

Based on what I heard on Science Friday, I understand why we are in the mess that we are in. A healthy life style falls by the wayside when people don’t have the energy or time because they are figuratively running to stay in place economically; it’s difficult to change old habits; and there is big money to be made and time to be saved with drugs,