Depression, or Toxic Lifestyle Disorder?
February 15th, 2007Imagine my shock.
Via: Los Angeles Times:
The backdrop to therapeutic lifestyle change, or TLC, is an increase in depressive illness since World War II, Ilardi says. “There’s increasing evidence that we were never designed for our sedentary, socially isolated, indoor, sleep-deprived, frenzied, poorly nourished lifestyle,” he says.
Ilardi combines group therapy sessions with a set of lifestyle changes, each of which has proven effective against depression: aerobic exercise; ingestion of omega-3 fatty acids; light; positive social interaction; substituting activity for rumination; and increased sleep. The goal is for patients to live more like their Paleolithic ancestors.
The results of the 14-week regimen so far have been encouraging. In an ongoing study of 79 patients, with two-thirds assigned to his therapy and the rest to a control group treated mainly with antidepressant medication or traditional psychotherapy, Ilardi reports a 74% favorable response, compared with 16% for the controls.
Research Credit: Ran Prieur
My cholesterol hit 190 after 18 months of working at an insane pace putting out a release every 6 months.
My doctor started tracking me every 3 months. I walked 10,000 steps a day and ate lots of flax seed and it dropped like a rock to 150. No evil Lipitor needed. Felt a heck of alot better too.
Who’d thunk proper sleep, diet & exercise would have a positive affect on a person’s well-being? Go figure. /shrug
Naps Linked to Lower Risk of Fatal Heart Problems
Thirty minutes of shuteye in the afternoon may help lower the risk of dying from a heart attack, suggests new research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The study tracked the effects of napping on the health of 23,681 Greek adults, most of whom were in their 50s, over a period six years on average. The researchers found that people who indulged in a 30-minute siesta three times a week or more often were 37 percent less likely to die from a heart attack or other heart problem than non-nappers.
Google news search for “heart attack naps”
“The goal is for patients to live more like their Paleolithic ancestors.”
So in order to defeat depression, we’ll have to go back to living in caves, wearing animal skins, and pummelling the crap out of each other with clubs, fighting over the last scraps of undercooked flesh from the carcass of last night’s wooly mammoth kill?
Is depression necessarily that bad a thing?