Is there a link between inflammation in the body and depression?

Inflammation can negatively impact any part of the body; therefore inflammation can increase the risk for depression symptoms. Neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, discusses how gut health is linked to inflammation, the root of many health issues.

Transcript

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Our most dreaded degenerative brain disorders, for example, are primarily inflammatory. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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Anything that changes what goes on inside the gut in terms of the balance of bacteria ultimately leads to destabilization or breakdown

00:23

of the wall of the gut, getting-- allowing things to get out of the gut that would normally have remained in the gut.

00:29

These things enter the systemic circulation and can lead to inflammation. Inflammation in this manner can affect

00:36

any part of the body from head to toe from the brain to the heart to the immune system. And so therefore, we see this really elegant relationship

00:45

between things that go on in the gut and the level of inflammation in the body. And make no mistake about it as it relates to the brain.

00:54

Our most dreaded degenerative brain disorders, for example, are primarily inflammatory.

01:00

Things like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and MS are primarily inflammatory conditions.

01:06

And now that we understand this intimate relationship of inflammation with things going on in the gut, we're able to correlate then the health

01:16

of the gut with risk for certain debilitating brain issues. And so now what researchers are identifying

01:24

is a very intimate relationship between the process of inflammation and depression itself.

01:30

Depression is now looked upon as being an inflammatory disorder. And it's interesting to note that the very

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popular so-called SSRI antidepressant medications, the Prozacs, the Paxils, the Zolofts that you

01:43

hear so much about, actually may be working because they are potent anti-inflammatory medications.

01:51

So it may have nothing to do with how these drugs affect serotonin levels. So again, anything that leads to inflammation really

01:58

increases the risk of depression. And the primary focus of inflammation turns out to be the gut.