Posted by Larry Hoover on June 27, 2004, at 14:32:42
In reply to For the Hooverman, or anyone else who might know., posted by Susan J on June 21, 2004, at 9:50:42
> Lar,
>
> I don't follow this board too much, so forgive me if I'm asking a question that's been answered repeatedly.
>
> I know that taking megadoses of stuff like Vitamin B Complex can help depression, but is there any proof that depression itself actually impedes the body's ability to use certain nutrients?I hate to give a simple yes or no to such a question. I lean towards yes, though.
Depression is often related to general stress. It doesn't have to be a particular kind of stress to put you into depression, but depression can follow stress. Stress changes the way your body handles minerals. Stress causes loss of minerals in urine, and changes biochemical demand for vitamins. If the stress exists long enough, the mechanisms by which nutrients are pumped out of the gut can start to malfunction, because they rely on vitamins and minerals, too. That's when you begin to see stress malnutrition, which is a vicious circle phenomenon. One form of malnutrition causes other forms of malnutrition, via poor uptake, and gets "locked in". That might be when overt depression is diagnosed. I'm suggesting that taking drugs to affect the brain chemistry may be insufficient to restore the chemistry in the rest of the body. Megavitamin therapy is designed to flood the body in such a way that even poor uptake mechanisms cannot prevent nutrients from getting into the body.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:358546
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040613/msgs/361009.html