Arizona Center on Aging -Optimal Aging

TOPIC 7: Depression

Seven years ago Eve Thomas had just moved to Tucson with her son. Things were good. "...and yet I still didn't have any desire to do anything or live." Thomas continued, "I stopped seeing a lot of people, I didn't want to socialize. I wasn't functioning normally."

Eve now realizes she was depressed, and had been for 14 years. She tried a variety of therapies, including a number of anti-depressant drugs, some of which worked temporarily.

She eventually was referred to Dr. Hunter Yost who practices nutritional and functional medicine.

Yost says that whether it be arthritis, cancer, diabetes or depression, there is always a nutritional component that can be addressed.

"The untold story about depression and nutritional influences is that there is a wealth of scientific information and medical research over the past 25 years documenting the importance of amino acids, B vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and general dietary recomendations that anyone can do... that doesn't cost anything."

Examining your diet is the first step you can take in fighting depression.

Dr. Yost recommends cutting back on refined sugars, caffine and chocolate.

Also figure out if you have any food sensitivities.

The next step might require a visit to the doctor for a blood test to determine nutritional defficiencies.

Dr. Yost says, "For example, folate deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world. Depression is the most common symptom of folate deficiency. About a third of all people who have a diagnosis of depression are deficient in folate."

Eve Thomas has been seeing Dr. Yost for about two months now.

She's supplementing her diet with vitamins including B-6, and is cutting back on caffine, refined sugar and carbohydrates. She says she's on the road to returning to the person she once was.

"So now as I get better, the desire to go places... I want to do my art again - I haven't for years. I see all these things changing right before my eyes"