148: Treating Depression as a Mitochondrial Disorder: What You Can Do

Long before you come to a formal diagnosis, there is a lot that you can do to improve your situation without the use of any medication. It’s time to look into some basic and some of the less basic things that you can do for yourself, like getting to know about your genome “SNPs”, the light you get exposed to, vitamin D, and getting off carbs as much as possible. Although the results will be dramatic, they will be slow at first. There is so much more to share, but this is a place to start.

Today, Dr. Karl would like to continue with the topic of S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder), and look further into some mental disorders, even though we will be talking about the same variables in each of those.

Looking at the medication level as the last priority

If you look at the medication level as the last priority, rather than the first, you should be able to mitigate the thing in the end which needs to get treated with medication.

A serious flaw

Dr. Karl explains that when things get categorized so specifically and only leads to medication, it indicates a flaw. If, however, we look at what needs to get done to protect the person from self-harm or to protect society in general from what that person could do, it would justify the medication.

We need to look at other things

Those are diet and genes. 

S.A.D.

Bright lights can help in treating S.A.D. because they increase melatonin. Daylight and blue light get received by the optic chiasm. It then goes to the pineal gland and stops the production of melatonin. 

Melatonin

In the winter, some people are sensitive to too much melatonin. As a result, they don’t sleep too well, and they get depressed. That will lead to problematic outcomes for them. 

Light therapy

The idea behind light therapy is for you to wake up to bright light in the winter, and in the summertime, your room needs to be dark and cool at night. 

Foods that are the highest in tryptophan

The foods that are the highest in tryptophan are lean turkey, lean chicken, and meat.

Sunlight

Sunlight only affects melatonin.

Stress

Chronic stress or anything that elevates your cortisol will prevent your tryptophan from converting to serotonin, making you serotonin deficient. Cortisol also increases your blood sugar, which will then create some other issues.

Meditation  

Meditation will reduce your cortisol and help you alleviate stress.

Genome 

It is worth having your genome panel done because once you have had it done, you won’t have to do it again.

MTHFR

MTHFR is an enzyme. It has a gene that codes with it. There are variations of that gene, which are called polymorphisms. 

Intersections

You need to look at the problem in the context of someone’s life. You also need to look at the genes and enzymes that lead into an intersection to deduce if that person has a particular problem, and if so, how it could be resolved. That could require some trial and error.

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Article: 

Mitochondria and Mood: Mitochondrial Dysfunction as a Key Player in the Manifestation of Depression