7 wks of Primal & severe depression hit page

[WowieZowie]

Hope you can help me.

I have been very enthusiastically following PB for 7 weeks. All of a sudden, almost overnight, I woke up severely depressed for no seeming reason. And to go along with it, I suddenly didn't want to eat Primal anymore...actually I have kind of lost my appetite for anything.

I don't seem to know what I am depressed about. It came out of seeming nowhere. I do have a history of chronic depression that ended a couple of years ago when I got off antidepressants. I thought I had left depression behind forever by leaving antidepressants behind, but here severe depression is back again.

I have noticed in the past that when I try to change my diet I get depressed. Maybe I (some people) need carbs to keep a level of serotonin?

Also, the first mo. I lost about 7 lb. The next 3 weeks I lost 4 lb. Now I have gained a few back and feel like I am no longer losing on PB.

I hope you have some suggestions for me. I thought I had found the perfect eating plan with PB but suddenly it is not working at all for me.

[Knifegill]

I have heard of this often! Here are some things that have anecdotally been the problem for some people:

Electrolyte depletion - get more salt, potassium, magnesium, and chloride. The body dumps a lot of lytes when transitioning to very low-carb. Mine was temporary, salt fixed it, then I wasn't eliminating as much after a few months and ended up with high BP from the excess salt. So now I just get my salt from bacon and sauerkraut and pop a little magnesium now and then. You may also be low in iodine, vitamin D, or any number of pet nutrients this place has grown attached to. I STRONGLY recommend eating a good half-pound of liver once or twice a week for all the B vitamins and others, and some seaweed for the iodine again once or twice a week. Bone broth is also easy to make and did help me, and I still make and consume it somewhat regularly.

Punch your foods into fitday or a better food-tracking system and closely examine your mIcro nutrients very well, and find foods that wil help you - over the course of the week - to fill everything in. Between liver, greens, nuts and eggs, I think you'll find most of it covered. Oh, bacon is not only a great source of zinc, copper and choline - it's also one of the best sources of thiamin in the world. Check out beef heart, too. Tastes like beef, you can get it cut into steaks, and it's easy to store and cook at the drop of a hat.


Carb cycling - Some people find it easier to maintain a good mood when they add carbs back, and smaller number of them may gain or lose more body fat when they do this. To offset those complications, many enjoy periods of normal-carb eating with windows of very low-carb mixed in. Say four or five days of one, two or three of the other. This worked amazingly well for me, while some find this unsustainable due to difficulty switching between fat and carb metabolism. Intense, infrequent exercise should fix that.

And it may not be food-related. Look at your whole life. Does something need to be resolved so you can clear your mind? Address it!

[Lewis]

You're not neglecting to eat fish, particularly oily fish, are you?

Paleo diets tend to emphasize meat. It is a good source of many nutrients, but don't neglect fish. There's a huge link between omega-3 fatty acids and depression. In fact, it's not just omega-3s such as DHA that are important. Seafood is the richest source of many nutrients the brain needs:



Depression has gone up in the U.K. as the rate of seafood comnsumption has dropped:

Glen Matten: Cases of Depression Soar - Is it What We're (Not) Eating?

[Lewis]

See also this video featuring a doctor from the NIH in the States:

[jammies]

A few thoughts:

1. Calories - Low calorie dieting can deplete neurotransmitters for some people. Try to eat more calories for a while and see if it helps.

2. Magnesium and electrolytes can get low.

3. Fish oil and vitamin D3 may need to be supplemented.

4. Zinc - loss of appetite can be caused by a zinc deficiency. Eat some oysters or get a supplement.

I recently developed a severe depression after over 2 years of eating primal. I have been trying to treat it naturally. What has FINALLY been giving me some relief is the addition of Evening Primrose Oil and SAM-E. I have always been pretty diligent about avoiding Omega 6 fatty acids and I don't eat nuts. But I read that some people need more of a particular O6 fat, especially if they have a family history of alcoholism. The Sam-e and EPO started working about 5 days after I started them. I have no idea which one is helping or if it is co-incidence.

[Knifegill]

Who, me? I eat oysters and seaweed, fish maybe once a week. It's overrated. Look up the actual survival rates of people based on how much fish they eat. People who eat lots of fish die earlier than people who eat less - but still a little - fish. The polyunsaturated fatty acids oxidize in your body, according to some ideas, and this damage will shorten your life. I like to play it safe and stick to land animals (organ meats, bone broth, tallow and - yes- just plain steak sometimes) for the most part, which my most immediate genetic ancestors likely ate almost exclusively.

[WowieZowie]

Thanks for your suggestions, folks. I will look into them. I also googled "primal causes depression" for the heck of it, and ended up running into Do You Have Pyroluria? | Primal Body Primal Mind Diet and Nutrition wherein pyroluria was discussed. Well I got an 81% on a test I found for pyroluria. This is a condition where some people need more B6 and zinc. I'm going to check that out. Apparently a urine test is diagnostic.

Regarding your comments...it is not low calories. I doubt it's fish oil I take plenty. I cooked some salmon tonight and absolutely couldn't make myself eat it! I usually enjoy salmon but tonight it is a total turn off. I can hardly eat anything tonight and suddenly have a craving for wheat but have no grains in the house! (I've had no craving for wheat in 7 weeks). All meat is suddenly turning me off....I think I overdid that. Raw food sounds terrible...I think I could eat cooked veggies but I have no energy to prepare it. I also am craving potatoes. And I haven't wanted them in 7 weeks. It is like all of a sudden I don't want Primal. I have no energy to exercise either. I think carbs are calling me. So of the above carb-loading sounds like the thing to try.

I ended up elevating my mood by getting lost in cyberspace researching pyroluria and natural methods of healing depression...found lots on HTP-5 and SAM-e. There is a ND in my town that treats pyroluria...I will go see her. Wonder if she'll hate Primal...most ND's are veg's.

Every single diet I have ever tried of any kind (especially lack of dairy) has sent me into depression in 2 weeks. This plan took 7 weeks to do it and I really wasn't expecting it. I thought I had found my perfect diet...my initial results were fab. I really do like that the ravenous hunger I felt on the SAD diet is long gone. That's the best thing about PB to me: steady blood sugar. This total lack of appetite I'm feeling is highly unusual for me.

[Knifegill]

If you are eating liver, unles you have absorption issues, you can't be deficient in B vitamins or zinc. If anybody else is reading this, and has any lack of energy or depression, PLEASE start eating lots of liver if you aren't. I had NO idea how depleted I was. It took months of regular liver consumption to finally load my body with those nutrients it was lacking. I don't have numbers, but I do know I can't eat liver quite as often now. Probably the vitamin A in my body telling me 'NO'.

[Lewis]

Yeah, you need to look at the links I gave. There is a large, and increasing, lot of data on this.

[Knifegill]

If I ever have a computer again, I will. Here at work, they're just black squares that won't do anything. Can't paste them into the browser or youtube, either. I'll try a few more things. I do want to watch them.