Is Obesity Causing Your Depression?

Here's what's happening on the HealthyPlace site this week:

• The Brain-Gut Connection Has a Surprising Role in Depression
• From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
• Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
• Mental Health Quote

The Brain-Gut Connection Has a Surprising Role in Depression

That there is a connection between depression and weight gain isn’t startling. People have long known that depression, with its sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy nutritional habits, and medications, can cause significant weight gain and obesity. What is startling is the discovery that the link between depression and obesity is a two-way street. Researchers have learned that gut health, including obesity, can cause depression.

Dubbed the second brain, our complex gut health impacts brain health. When the gut experiences poor conditions, the brain suffers. Obesity causes inflammation in the digestive tract. It also causes insulin resistance. Both inflammation and insulin resistance can damage the brain reducing its size and changing connectivity and functioning. We feel this in reduced cognitive functioning. This can also lead to mental health difficulties, brain fog, and confusion—all of which can be symptoms of depression.

This discovery that obesity triggers depression is significant. We now know that, literally, depression isn’t all in your head. It’s often in the gut, too. The link between depression and obesity shows that depression is more than psychological. It’s physiological as well. This also points to a path to avoid or reduce depression: work to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, and increase physical and mental health.

Sources:

Brain-Gut connection, the. (n.d.). Johns Hopkins Medicine. Retrieved July 2019 from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-brain-gut-connection    

Nott, L. (2013). Insidious connection between depression, unwanted weight gain, and obesity. Promises Behavior Health. Retrieved July 2019 from https://www.promisesbehavioralhealth.com/news-and-research/the-insidious-connection-between-depression-unwanted-weight-gain-and-obesity/

Related Articles Dealing with Obesity, Gut Health, and Depression

• How Gut Health Affects Mental Health
• Diet Plan for Depression and Anxiety
• Nutritional Therapy for Depression
• Nutrition and Mental Health: What You Eat Makes a Difference
• Brain Fog: A Symptom of Depression
• What are the Cognitive Symptoms (Deficits) of Depression?

Your Thoughts

Today's Question: If you deal with obesity, have you noticed changes in your cognitive abilities over time? We invite you to participate by sharing your thoughts, knowledge, and experiences on the HealthyPlace Facebook page.

From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.

• 3 Questions for Healthier Relationships with Disordered Eating
• How I Use Distress Tolerance Coping Skills When Everything Is Too Much
• Share Tasks and Have More Fun
• Associative Thinking with ADHD: What Is It? How Does It Feel?
• What Changes When You Fight Mental Health Stigma?
• How to Spot Covert Abuse by a Boss
• Reduce Anxiety at Home: Tips to Create a Calming Space
• Why I'm Against LGBT Conversion Therapy
• Do Addicts Have to Hit Rock Bottom to Start Recovering?
• How Bad Habits Affect Self-Esteem
• This Schizoaffective's Dad Is Always There for Her
• Are High Expectations for Yourself Causing Your Anxiety?
• Coping with Recurring Depression Symptoms
• Are High Expectations for Yourself Causing Your Anxiety?
• Emotion Regulation Skills for Self-Harm Using DBT
• Being More Emotionally Resilient to Reclaim My Life
• The Correlation Between Social Media and Eating Disorders
• Anxiety Disclosure and Its Importance
• 5 Reasons the Bullet Journal Helps Those with Mental Illness

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

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Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans

Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:

1. Having a Really Bad Day? Here's What to Do About It
2. I Have Borderline Personality Disorder Not Bipolar
3. Can You Predict Mental Illness in Childhood?

If you're not already, I hope you'll join us/like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.

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Mental Health Quote

"Never give up on someone with mental illness. When the “I” is replaced by “We”. Illness becomes wellness."

Read more mental health quotes.

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