Brain Health, Depression, and Omega-3

Zygmunt: My name is Michael Zygmunt, President of Beneficial Foods. I’m talking with Dr. Neil Nedley, a specialist in the field of Internal Medicine and author of the popular books Proof Positive, and more recently, Depression, the Way Out. Dr. Nedley, what led you, a specialist in the field of internal medicine, to research and treat depression?

Dr. Nedley: Actually, it was an article that came from the American Medical Association from a journal called “Archives of Internal Medicine.” It was a very well done study that indicated that one out of every three people that see an internist in a general practice, is suffering from depression. It may be a mild form of depression, but yet some form of depression. When I realized that up to one out of every three people that I see in my office is suffering from depression, I recognized my own lack in that area. Yeah, I had been to grand rounds in psychiatry, I had done psychiatric rotations in medical school, I knew about all the medications for depression and their affects and side affects and interactions. I knew that when patients didn’t get better with medicine we’d normally refer them to counseling. But I recognized that many of these people were on medications for life. They still were not functioning well in their family and their environment and I decided to actually go into the research to find out if there was more that could be done. I was amazed as I did the literature search and researches at medical school libraries that there were many things that had been published in helping us to find the cause of depression, as well as finding the treatment, the right treatment for depression that were not being utilized in standard medical practices. I began utilizing these techniques in my own practice with wonderful results. It has just been clearly amazing to me see depressed patients cured where they are no longer dependent on medication and counseling because we had gotten to the underlying cause of their depression.

Zygmunt: Excellent. Were you personally experiencing patients coming into your office complaining about depression?

Dr. Nedley: Well, they would complain about fatigue. They would complain about lack of concentration. Yes, sometimes they would actually tell me that they were depressed and that they had major depression. They may have already been diagnosed by a psychiatrist or family doctor or something like that. But often they were just complaining of other symptoms and I would question them further and find out that their fatigue or lack of concentration or the fact that they weren’t able to sleep well at night were related to depression and not the standard internal medicine diseases.

Zygmunt: So were a good number of these patients not even aware that they were suffering from depression?

Dr. Nedley: That’s correct. I would say over half of patients that are suffering from major depression have no idea that they are depressed. They just think that their decreased mood and their decreased quality of life is something that has come along with age or maybe because of some marital problems, etc. and haven’t really gone the extra length to find out that they are actually having problems with major depression which is indeed a disease that needs to be recognized and treated.

Zygmunt: How pervasive is the problem of depression?

Dr. Nedley: One out of four women will get it at some point in their lifetime, and that is major depression, not just a down mood that they will get every now and then. But major depression is where it affects you for at least two weeks continuously in many different ways. One out of every eight men will get it at some point in their life. There are millions of Americans suffering from this disease. It’s bigger than diabetes, actually, in America. Our Surgeon General recently put out a book on mental health in which he termed depression “an epidemic in our society” because it’s increasing. These numbers… in each successive generation we’ve seen more and more depression.

Zygmunt: So it is a growing problem?

Dr. Nedley: Yes.

Zygmunt: When I first heard you speak, I was surprised to hear of possibly strong nutritional links to depression.

Dr. Nedley: Yes, in fact, in my research I was surprised as well when I began to realize that a lot of research had looked at nutritional factors in depression and found very much a link. In fact, after I had completed my research, my raw research, I found out that there are ten major causes of depression. One of those major causes is nutritional factors. In fact, we commonly see patients with depression, that once we clear up the nutrition part of their program, they are well on their way to success. There may be some other factors playing a role as well. We’ll, of course, address those. But often the nutritional area does need to be addressed because it has so much to do with our brain chemistry. What we eat does turn into neurotransmitters that are transmitted from one neuron to another and it can have a lot to do with how we’re thinking, whether we’re fatigued or not, how well we’re able to concentrate, and basically, how well we’re able to function in our family, in our work environment, and in our school.

Zygmunt: We’ve heard a lot about Omega-3 for the heart. Can you touch on that and maybe tell us what else Omega-3 is good for?

Dr. Nedley: Omega-3 is a polyunsaturated fatty acid that is actually an essential fatty acid in the diet. That means that our bodies cannot synthesize it from other fats. If we’re eating animal fat that is high in saturated fat, we can synthesize some fats but we will not be able to synthesize Omega-3. There are two essential fatty acids in the diet, Omega-3 and Omega-6. Omega-6 is pretty plentiful in the plant world. Omega-3 is not as plentiful. Omega-3 not only helps to lower cholesterol levels, to lower triglyceride levels, but in addition, can even be anti-inflammatory. We have used it particularly in rheumatoid arthritis with some wonderful results. We’ve also used Omega-3 for psoriasis. It can even help stomach ulcers. It may, some of the data is indicating it may even decrease the risk of some common cancers in our society, possibly even breast and colon cancer. So, Omega-3 is something that most Americans are not getting enough of in order to obtain those benefits and it really is a nutritive factor that we need to emphasize more.

Zygmunt: More recently, there’s been exciting research on how Omega-3 affects the brain. Can you tell us more about that?

Dr. Nedley: Yes. In my research on depression I uncovered the fact that Omega-3 is very important for brain chemistry, normal brain chemistry. And it’s not only important for treating depression, but also in actually increasing our intellectual ability. For instance, babies that are raised on formula or cows milk do not get Omega-3 in their milk formula and they end up with a nine to ten point lower IQ than they would if they were consuming human breast milk which does have Omega-3 in it. That is a big factor and something that really needs to be highlighted across this nation. It is one of the reasons why breast fed is best fed in addition to other reasons. But on top of that, Omega-3 has been shown to be helpful in improving mood, helpful in correcting errors in our thinking process, as well as keeping the brain calm under stress. Bi-polar patients, the manic depressive patients, for instance, have much more control over the mania phase of their disease and much longer remissions. Even their medications are able to be decreased just by getting enough Omega-3 in their diet. Even lower amounts of Omega-3 can be very helpful in treating major depression. I document all of this in our book, Depression: The Way Out.

Zygmunt: Touching on sources of Omega-3, most commonly we have heard of Omega-3 coming from fish oil. I know, in your book, you speak to that issue as to whether fish oil is the best source and there are some vegetarian sources that you feel are superior. Can you talk to us briefly about that?

Dr. Nedley: Yes. Fish oil is good because it has Omega-3 but it also has some bad in it. Fish oil, being an animal product is pretty high in cholesterol. It also has the highest levels of toxins in our food supply. For instance, the highest levels of mercury in the food supply are in fish. Pesticide levels tend to be quite high in fish. All of this has to do with water runoff situations where whatever is in the water environment that the fish are swimming in tend to be concentrated a thousand to a million fold in their fat. So, many people are concerned about the quality of water that they’re drinking but there’s a thousand times more important question than the quality of water they’re drinking on a daily basis, and that is the quality of water that their fish came from that they ate. Fish used to be a healthy food a hundred years ago. It is not healthy anymore. In fact, the medical associations are trying to get people to limit their fish intake, particularly pregnant women because mercury and the fetus don’t go well together. It can cause all sorts of problems during the entire life of the baby that’s being born and decrease intellectual function, as well as even increasing the risk of fetal malformation. So, we really need to be getting Omega-3. Omega-3 is great. I like that about fish but be need to be getting Omega-3 that is not contaminated with toxins, with heavy metals and with pesticides. The best way of doing that is getting plant sources of Omega-3.

Zygmunt: What are the best plant sources of Omega-3?

Dr. Nedley: Well, the best plant source is flax seed, which is one of the reasons why flax seed has increased dramatically in this country, which is a very good thing. Walnuts are also a very good source of Omega-3. Of course, the original source, where the fish get it from, is the actual cold water ocean seaweed-very high in Omega-3. Fish don’t have the ability to produce it themselves because they have to get it from plant foods as well. But the seaweed isn’t nearly as tasty as the flax seeds and the walnuts.

Zygmunt: What other nutritional factors can affect depression and brain health in general?

Dr. Nedley: Well, there are actually quite a few nutritional factors that can. Our brain has to make serotonin for it to function normally. Serotonin is also a mood enhancing neurotransmitter and the only way we can make Serotonin is by getting enough Tryptophan in the diet. Tryptophan is an amino acid and it’s going to be present primarily in tofu, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, almonds, but there are more foods obviously that would have this. But those would be the nice, natural sources of Tryptophan. Also, by getting enough of the B vitamins, particularly Folate, or Folic Acid is very important. Our US government has targeted Folic Acid as being very under-consumed in America and is recommending that every American get at least 400 micrograms of Folic Acid a day and if you’re pregnant, a thousand micrograms of Folic Acid a day. That is present largely in plant food. Legumes are very high in it but even pineapple and oranges can have quite a bit as well as peanuts. But your highest sources are going to be the lentils and black-eyed peas. Then, on top of that, B-12, another important vitamin for neurological health, as well as vitamin B-6. In fact, one of the studies that I uncovered showed that the majority of depressed patients do have a problem with getting enough of these nutrients. So, we target nutrition up front in depression simply because it’s so prevalent almost across the board in depressed patients. They’re not getting enough of one or more of these nutrients that I just mentioned.

Zygmunt: We at Beneficial Foods, with your guidance, have developed a nutritional bar focused on brain health and the nutritional factors associated with preventing and combating depression. You’ve taken this bar with you, even though it’s been very recently introduced, to some of your seminars. What has been the initial response of the people that you have lectured to as they have been made aware of this product?

Dr. Nedley: Excitement. I mean, they are just thrilled to be able to get an Omega-3 source that is not going to be a fish source that is going to produce the beneficial effects that we have been talking about. In fact, it’s been amazing to see people buy it by the case load, sometimes without even tasting it. If they do taste it in a sample form, they buy even more because this Omega-3 that you have in your bar, Michael, called “Omega-3 Uplift”, is very tasty. If it tastes good, and it’s healthy, and it has the potential to produce some very beneficial effects, then why not consume it? Of course, it’s not very expensive either so people are really buying it up. We used to recommend that people potentially make recipes out of flax seeds and English Walnuts. In fact, we still do that but a lot of people don’t have the time to go out and buy the raw materials to produce cookies or other things that we have in our book, Depression: The Way Out . If it’s already made for them and it’s cheaply done and already tasty, they’re ahead of the game.

Zygmunt: OK. Well, I want to thank you, Dr. Nedley, for taking the time for this interview and for sharing your expertise with us.

Dr. Nedley: Thank you, Michael.