I have had type 2 diabetes since 1993. Through out this period, and before it, I've dealt with emotional depression. Perhaps for so long that I was not aware of another way of feeling about things. It has seemed bullet proof to therapy, medications, and anything else I tried to make it so I could feel like other people.
I may have run across an answer why I've been forced to live through this. As noted in the title to this article, I'm beginning to believe it has to do with the combination of depression, diabetes, and B Vitamins (which play a big part in nervous system development and maintenance). I've some medical research to back up what I'm saying as well.
First, here is a possible depression connection with B vitamins. In a report published in Psychosomatics in the late 1980's, A. Missagh Gharirian of McGill University in Montreal, it was stated that low levels of the B vitamin folic acid was linked to depression. Dr. Ghadirian found that folic acid supplements relieved depression in people that had both depression and low folic acid levels. The study found that symptoms of depression can occur within 100 days of low folic acid intake.
Folic acid is recommended to be taken at levels of 400 milligrams a day for adults, 500 mg / day for nursing mothers and 800 mg / day by soon-to-be mothers to prevent birth defects. Because it is water-soluble, unneeded amounts are flushed out within 24 hours.
Raw vegetables are a good source of folic acid as it dissolves in cooking water.
What surprised and concerned me however was the prescriptions and over the counter drugs that interfere with the absorption of folic acid (and other B vitamins). This list includes aspirin (which is commonly prescribed in 'baby' strength to diabetics to combat heart/blood vessel damage, I was told that a diabetic is seen in a doctor's eyes of already having a heart attack - I've been taking one a day for at least 3 years), acetaminophen (Tylenol), several chemotherapy drugs, and high levels of vitamin C.
The drug that interferes with B12 vitamin absorption (for a lot of diabetics) is metaformin, a very common glucose controlling and insulin sensitizing drug (I've been taking it for years, and I've been able to cut my dose in half in the last year). Another study notes that 10 to 30% of the people that take metaformin have evidence of decreased B12 absorption (from the Diabetes Self Management blog). At that website there are comments that note that supplementing B12 has increased energy dramatically for some people.
A lack of energy will certainly encourage (is that the right word?) depression, and a nervous system that produces numbness and tingling in the feet certainly isn't up to snuff as well. My point is that even if there isn't a proven link specifically between diabetes, B12 vitamin deficiency, and depression, it certainly wouldn't be much of a stretch.
I may have run across an answer why I've been forced to live through this. As noted in the title to this article, I'm beginning to believe it has to do with the combination of depression, diabetes, and B Vitamins (which play a big part in nervous system development and maintenance). I've some medical research to back up what I'm saying as well.
First, here is a possible depression connection with B vitamins. In a report published in Psychosomatics in the late 1980's, A. Missagh Gharirian of McGill University in Montreal, it was stated that low levels of the B vitamin folic acid was linked to depression. Dr. Ghadirian found that folic acid supplements relieved depression in people that had both depression and low folic acid levels. The study found that symptoms of depression can occur within 100 days of low folic acid intake.
Folic acid is recommended to be taken at levels of 400 milligrams a day for adults, 500 mg / day for nursing mothers and 800 mg / day by soon-to-be mothers to prevent birth defects. Because it is water-soluble, unneeded amounts are flushed out within 24 hours.
Raw vegetables are a good source of folic acid as it dissolves in cooking water.
What surprised and concerned me however was the prescriptions and over the counter drugs that interfere with the absorption of folic acid (and other B vitamins). This list includes aspirin (which is commonly prescribed in 'baby' strength to diabetics to combat heart/blood vessel damage, I was told that a diabetic is seen in a doctor's eyes of already having a heart attack - I've been taking one a day for at least 3 years), acetaminophen (Tylenol), several chemotherapy drugs, and high levels of vitamin C.
The drug that interferes with B12 vitamin absorption (for a lot of diabetics) is metaformin, a very common glucose controlling and insulin sensitizing drug (I've been taking it for years, and I've been able to cut my dose in half in the last year). Another study notes that 10 to 30% of the people that take metaformin have evidence of decreased B12 absorption (from the Diabetes Self Management blog). At that website there are comments that note that supplementing B12 has increased energy dramatically for some people.
A lack of energy will certainly encourage (is that the right word?) depression, and a nervous system that produces numbness and tingling in the feet certainly isn't up to snuff as well. My point is that even if there isn't a proven link specifically between diabetes, B12 vitamin deficiency, and depression, it certainly wouldn't be much of a stretch.
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