A Natural Compound That Reduces Depression

by Chris Shugart

Synthesis of Curcumin

More than 17 million Americans suffer from depression and anxiety, and the drugs used to treat them can be difficult. Could this be a natural remedy?

You know what’s frustrating? Antidepressants. Common side effects include weight gain, sexual dysfunction, sleep disturbances, nausea and headaches. It’s enough to make anyone, well, sad.

In recent years, many researchers have questioned the concept of “chemical imbalance” (disturbances in monoaminergic neurotransmission, especially in relation to the availability of serotonin). Others have focused on malnutrition. Fix these common flaws and maybe all those drugs won’t be necessary. Or, at least, a small amount of those drugs may work if the food is suitable.

Other researchers looked at all the biological disturbances that we now know are associated with depression. These include:

• Dysfunction of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis system
• Activation of immuno-inflammation mechanisms
• Increased oxidative and nitrosative stress
• Neuroprogression (repeated stress episodes cause extensive damage and changes in brain physiology)
• Mitochondrial dysfunction

Their goal was to find natural compounds that target the same pathways as biological processes. One of those ingredients is curcumin (Buy on Amazon).

The study

Researchers knew from previous studies that curcumin can lower markers of oxidative stress, modulate immuno-inflammation (by acting as a COX-2 inhibitor), lower pro-inflammatory cytokines, provide with great neuroprotection, they regulate the HPA activity, and stimulate the transmission of monoamines in its effect. with serotonergic and dopaminergic activity. But they wanted to test it in people with major depression.

The scientists recruited 28 men and women with depression (but not suicidal) for the placebo group and 28 for the curcumin group. Another group took a 500 mg capsule of curcumin twice a day. The placebo group took capsules containing inert cellulose. The entire procedure was randomized and double-blinded.

Subjects completed two different gold standard questionnaires several times during the 8-week study: the IDS-SR for assessing depression and the STAI for anxiety.

What happened?

In the first four weeks, everyone felt less depressed and anxious, even the placebos. Then something interesting happened: the curcumin group continued to feel better and had fewer symptoms of depression, but not the placebo group.

In all studies like this, researchers expect the placebo group to improve in the first few weeks. We have a name for it: the placebo effect. (Creative!) Normally, the placebo effect wears off after two weeks.

Within four to eight weeks, however, curcumin users continued to improve. The researchers noted: “Curcumin was highly effective in reducing overall depressive symptoms, depressive/psychotic symptoms, arousal-related symptoms, and trait anxiety.”

Here’s What You Need to Know

As always, more research is needed and no one is saying to go off your meds just yet, but the research is promising. Some scientists even believe that curcumin can help prevent the onset of depression and anxiety, possibly due to its anti-inflammatory effects.

Another thing researchers want to look at is the amount of curcumin. As scientists, they can only say that 500 mg taken twice a day has worked well, but they would like to try different doses.

Hopefully, they will research curcumin which is more absorbable. In their study, they used generic curcumin because it was the only one available at the time. But now we have micellar curcumin (Buy on Amazon) using solid particles of lipid curcumin (95% more bioavailable). Although the researchers used regular curcumin, lipidized curcumin produced 95 times more free curcumin in the blood than regular curcumin with piperine. Maybe the results would have been even better with the micellar form, or maybe they could have used less curcumin and gotten the same results with the micellar form.

Curcumin is well known as a natural anti-inflammatory and cardiovascular health supplement, but it also appears to help with mood disorders. Whatever your reason for taking it, make sure you use a micellar formula for the best results.

Reference

1. Lopresti, and others. “Curcumin for the treatment of major depression: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.” J Affect Difference. 2014:167:368-75. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.06.001. Epub 2014 Jun 11.