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574118 tn?1305135284

is depression a kind of inflammation

I have the feeling that depression is due to an inflammation. the reason is that the meds which handles one symptom like omega3 helps the other. If this is so, then curcumin which is the best food worldwide to handle inflammation must help relieve depression. Curcumin is one of the ingredients of curry frequently eaten in India and Pakistan. Does anybody know the statistics of depression there. Usually scientists to study the effect on health of a certain supplement they study the diet of the people in a certain country in which they consume much of it. for instance Japanese have less Chotesterrol due to eating much sea food, etc...

If I tell my pdoc that I can cure depression by curcumin, he will throw me out. I know my question sounds silly because what are the pharm companies doing sure they will not like it

But I read lately a new theory saying that most of the diseases are due to inflammation, even heart problems and diabetes. can this be true .  
Best Answer
Avatar universal
There actually are some theories out there about the role of inflammation in psychiatric disorders as well as other disorders, but we really don't know very much about the whole process yet.  There's also an oxidative stress theory, and there's some evidence that n-acetylcysteine helps with bipolar depression.  N-acetylcysteine is a precursor to glutathione, which is an antioxidant (NAC is actually used as a drug for acute acetaminophen/paracetamol poisoning and for certain lung disorders, but it can be obtained OTC).  Don't bother with glutathione itself, though.  I believe it gets broken down in the liver upon absorption and doesn't make it to the rest of the body.

My understanding with curcumin is that it has extremely sh*tty bioavailability, and is thus fairly useless.  Psycheducation.org has an interesting section on supplements with some evidence cited from decent research on this stuff.
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574118 tn?1305135284
thank you for telling me abt this site, it's new to me
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