The best treatment for depression | #24
Plus: food in Europe, "sleep divorces," and the man who got 217 COVID vaccinations
Greetings!
This month, we published two new pieces on the Dignity Integrative blog.
The first is a list of integrative medicine podcast recommendations, a follow-up to my earlier list of book recommendations.
The second is about Peter Attia’s evolution on the microbiome, a subject that I’ve been writing and thinking a lot about the past few years:
Attia readily admits his opinion has changed about some things, to his credit. The importance of gut health and the microbiome is one of them. That’s because there is new science that links certain strains of probiotics to the management of chronic diseases, such as diabetes.
Read the full post here.
And now, on to the recommendations this month!
#1: Dancing beats everything as treatment for depression
In a new study looking at 1,392 (944 females, 418 males, 30 unreported) patients across multiple studies, dancing won out for reduction in symptoms across multiple neurologic conditions:
Dancing was equally as effective as other physical activity interventions in improving the quality of life for people with Parkinson’s disease, reducing anxiety, and improving depressive symptoms.
According to the study’s author, Dr Alycia Fong Yan, undertaking structured dance of any genre is generally equal to and occasionally more effective than other types of physical activity interventions for improving a range of psychological and cognitive outcomes including emotional well-being, depression, motivation, social cognition, and some aspects of memory.
So just get out there and dance!
#2: Does time-restricted eating (TRE) increase the risk of cardiovascular death?
So, does time-restricted eating (TRE) raise your risk of cardiovascular disease by 91%? Not so fast. There are many caveats to this study, which got out-sized media attention relative to its rigor. The most important caveat is that this was a poster presented at a conference and not even a study that went through a standard peer review process.
Additionally, from Dr Peter Attia's team: the TRE group had only 414 participants and a total of just 31 deaths compared to the reference group, which had 11,831 participants and 423 deaths.
The TRE group also had a higher average BMI, were more likely to smoke, and were on average younger compared to the reference group, indicating that the groups themselves are different in more ways than just eating duration, making it almost impossible to compare the two groups.
I still recommend TRE of 10-12 hours a day as a simple way to control calories and derive health and longevity benefits.
#3: The food in Europe really is different
One of the common comments I’ve heard about food is, “Hey I can eat and drink the same food when I travel, typically to Europe, and have no problem—but when I come back home I get sick.”
The problem is that it’s not actually the same food. From how we grow our wheat in the U.S., to preservatives allowed in Europe, to overall chemical regulations there is simply a different approach.
Brominated vegetable oils (BVOs) are yet one example of a substance banned in Europe but allowed in the U.S. BVO is part of a class of food additives called emulsifiers and has been known for years to have negative health effects.
Thankfully, that appears to be changing, as the FDA is set to finally ban the substance.
#4: Flushing the brain and “sleep divorces”
The importance of sleep can’t be overstated.
Your brain is 2% of your body weight but undertakes 20-25% of all metabolic activity. That metabolic activity creates byproducts and toxins which need to be removed. The majority of that happens when we sleep.
More science is showing the importance of what is called glymphatic flow as the cerebrospinal fluid in your brain rushes through, carrying away toxins and those harmful byproducts for removal. The analogy of a dishwasher cleaning plates of debris is an appropriate one.
Do you need a sleep divorce?
Meanwhile, more and more couples are considering a “sleep divorce.”
Maybe it's not the same as being in the proverbial “doghouse,” but more couples are deciding that separate sleeping arrangements are better for their health.
An article in Scientific American notes that up to 1 out of every 3 couples find separate sleeping arrangements to be preferable. From snoring, much more common in men, to different sleep schedules there may be a benefit to sleeping separately. That should be balanced by the emotional and mental health benefits sleeping together provides.
See our post on Dignity Integrative for cultivating good sleep hygiene.
Also see Jeff Iliff’s excellent Ted Talk: One more reason to get a good night’s sleep
#5: New study shows a blood test could detect colon cancer
Effectively treating cancer and reducing mortality and morbidity from the disease is all about catching cancer early. More and more tests are coming to the market that use blood samples to detect abnormal cells.
This test, called Guardant, caught 83% of cancers in comparison to a colonoscopy screening. It also had 10% false positives (meaning the test was positive but no cancer was found on colonoscopy).
I still recommend colonoscopy for screening for any patient 45-75 years of age but many people avoid screening colonoscopies for various reasons—this test offers a good alternative.
#6: The man who got 217 COVID vaccinations
And from the files of the “unusual,” here is a report of a man who received 217 vaccinations for COVID and the impact on his immune system. Some theories suggest after multiple vaccinations there may be a downregulation of the immune system making virus response less effective. But that didn’t happen: "Overall, we did not find any indication for a weaker immune response, rather the contrary."
In addition, even the 217th vaccination that the man received still had an effect: the number of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 increased significantly as a result.
Obviously, a study of ‘1’ does not answer all questions on multiple vaccinations but it is still an interesting data point.