The Natural Way to Beat Depression
Professor Basant K. Puri has written a number of books concering his research with omega-3 fatty acids and EPA. Recently, I read The Natural Way to Beat Depression Along with Hilary Boyd, Dr. Puri details his successful experience in treating patients with depression using high-EPA fish oil in this informative book.
I found the book to be very well-written and easy to understand.
Puri and Boyd discuss at length the symptoms and standard treatments for depression, then follow on by explaining the crucial roll of EPA in recovery and how to incorporate it into your daily life.
Unlike Dr. Andrew Stoll, who theorizes that inflammation caused by excess arachadonic acid is a prime culprit in depression, Puri suggests that it is a dysfunction or deficiency in the delta-6-desaturase enzyme which leads to inefficient conversion of fatty acids ALA (alpha linolenic acid) and LA (linolenic acid).
Factors which influence the inhibition of delta-6-desaturase include:
- Aging, which makes enzymes function with less efficiency
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
- Excess cholesterol, common in diets rich in eggs, meat and dairy products
- Excess saturated and monounsaturated short-chain chain fatty acids, which typically constitute about 95% of the fatty acids in Western diets
- Heated oils from food preparation that involves frying or deep frying
- High sugar consumption, which prevents mobilization of essential fatty acids from fat deposits in the body
- Processed vegetable oils, which make up the bulk of all oil sold to consumers
- Smoking
- Stress, and hormones released during stress, like adrenal steroids and adrenaline
- Trans-fatty acids from margarines, shortenings, and hydrogenated vegetable oils
- Zinc and chromium deficiencies
These thoughts are supported by others, such as Dr. Barry Sears of “The Zone” diet fame. (For a ton of research regarding the role of delta-6 desaturase, check out the PubMed research database.)
Here is the book’s “back cover” description:
If you’re depressed - clinically, reactively or just feeling down, The Natural Way to Beat Depression might just be the sun emerging from behind the clouds. With orthodox treatment offering only medication with serious side-effects, recovery is often a long and painful process. And patients are often not so much cured, as their symptoms suppressed and replaced by a lifelong addiction to the prescribed antidepressant.
But now a new solution is emerging that is safe, effective and entirely natural. By ensuring an adequate supply of EPA – a nutrient contained in oily fish – Dr Basant Puri has achieved incredible success even in patients who have failed to respond to any conventional treatment.
For the first time, he reveals why omega-3 and 6 fatty acids are so extraordinarily effective - and how we can incorporate EPA into a healthy lifestyle to gain from its remarkable benefits ourselves.”
You can order this book from Amazon.com or request it at your local bookstore. I certainly recommend it to those who are dealing with mood disorders and want a better understanding of how high-EPA fish oil could help. Ω