InTheEndEntropyWins t1_iuqb9q0 wrote
So we have decent evidence that exercise, diet and sleep can help prevent and treat depression. Some of that evidence is fairly strong causal evidence.
It also turns out that exercise, diet and sleep are correlated with brain volume. And we have good reason to think that's causal as well.
This just seems to support the idea that for a healthy brain you need to exercise, sleep and have a good diet. If you don't then there will be negative changes in the brain volume and you will get increase chances of mental disorders such as depression.
While we don't have enough evidence to completely demonstrate the causal link, I think this hypothesis is much better supported than alternatives such as smaller brain volumes being inherent and that's what causes people to not exercise and makes them depressed.
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>Conclusion: Our results suggest that lower CV fitness and exaggerated exercise BP and HR responses in middle-aged adults are associated with smaller brain volume nearly 2 decades later. Promotion of midlife CV fitness may be an important step towards ensuring healthy brain aging.
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>https://n.neurology.org/content/86/14/1313.short?rss=1
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>We found that longitudinal measures of cortical atrophy were widely correlated with sleep quality.
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>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4162301/
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>A better diet quality is associated with larger brain tissue volumes.
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>https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29769374/
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>The diet may have a significant effect on preventing and treating depression for the individual. A diet that protects and promotes depression should consist of vegetables, fruits, fibre, fish, whole grains, legumes and less added sugar, and processed foods. In the public health nurse’s preventative and health-promoting work, support and assistance with changing people’s dietary habits may be effective in promoting depression. From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084175/
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>Current evidence supports the finding that omega-3 PUFAs with EPA ≥ 60% at a dosage of ≤1 g/d would have beneficial effects on depression Https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0515-5
Sleep is really important, if you aren't sleeping properly you have have a tenfold higher risk of depression,
>People with insomnia , for example, may have a tenfold higher risk of developing depression From https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/depression-and-sleep-understanding-the-connection
Finally studies show that exercise is just as effective as medicine.
>Four trials (n = 300) compared exercise with pharmacological treatment and found no significant difference (SMD -0.11, -0.34, 0.12). From https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24026850/
[deleted] t1_iuql22r wrote
[removed]
eldenrim t1_iuqmyfj wrote
Do we know what specifically helps in your diet?
Also, can damage from poor sleep be undone?
pokey1984 t1_iuqyy98 wrote
>can damage from poor sleep be undone?
In time, yes, absolutely. Brain damage from something like poor sleep can be cumulative. But getting into a healthy sleep pattern allows the body to heal and stops further damage. In time, even if the damaged brain stays that way, your brain learns to work around the damaged bits, like with stroke victims. And since the damage is (relatively) minor, people can "recover" from that kind of damage much more readily than, say, stroke or accident damage.
With proper diet and rehabilitation, other damage from poor sleep is also reversed in time in most people. Weakened bones, weakened immune system, skin damage... all of that can heal with proper care.
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