Article: Stone Age solutions to modern-day depression

[hippiechick]

Back to the basics .... works for me !! :applause:

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/living/16792355.htm

Stone Age solutions to modern-day depression
BY EDWARD M. EVELD
McClatchy Newspapers

To confront the country's growing depression epidemic, a modern phenomenon, psychologist Steve Ilardi peered backward into human history. Way back: tens of thousands of years and beyond.
His research steered him there, to an examination of the hunter-gatherer way of life, to a time when humans lived in roving, close-knit bands. Back to the Stone Age.

What he learned led Ilardi and his research team at the University of Kansas to propose a program to reclaim six disappearing lifestyle elements. They call it Therapeutic Lifestyle Change, intended to help modern humans deal with depressive illness.

The team identified factors that are antidepressant but are compromised by contemporary culture: Exercise, omega-3 consumption, light exposure, sleep, social connectedness and anti-ruminative behavior.

<snip>

Depressive illness is more frequent in developed countries than in developing ones and is worse among city dwellers than among rural folks. The Amish have very low depression rates. An anthropologist who studied the Kaluli people, a modern-day hunter-gatherer group in Papua New Guinea, found only one case of depression. Like hunter-gatherers of old, the Kaluli lack modern comforts and medicine. They deal regularly with infant mortality, disease and violence.

Culturally the contrast with modern Americans is huge. Biologically, however, we're not so different, not even from the hunter-gatherer clans going back hundreds of thousands of years.
Rapid cultural change is relatively recent, starting with farming, then city-building, then the technological explosion. So Ilardi asked: Are there built-in features of that ancient way of life that are antidepressant and that we need to reclaim?


... more at link ...

O8)

[I Have A Dream]

1. Thank you for this, hippiechick! There are quite a few areas mentioned...

which I personally need to improve.

[hippiechick]

2. You're very welcome!

I have never been able to buy into the "pop a pill and make it go away" big pharma theory of mental illness, so to me this seems so basic as to almost be a non-subject.

Not that I always practice what I preach, mind you. :hide:


:hi:

[Morgana LaFey]

5. I can vouch for Fish OIl

(Omega 3 oils) -- definitely useful for at least some forms of depression. DEFINITELY. They also have so many, many, many other benefits that NO ONE should be without them as part of their supplement regimen. No one. Take a minimum of 1200 mg./day.

[lildreamer316]

3. I'd like to take this opportunity..

(eek! haha) to use this part of the article:

"LIGHT EXPOSURE

Hunter-gatherers spend the day outside, exposed to sunlight. The light on a sunny day is at least 10 to 20 times brighter than light indoors, where most Americans spend much of the day.

A lack of light exposure has been found to disrupt sleep and alter hormones, contributing to fatigue. Sunlight deprivation, acute in winter, is known to lead to symptoms of depression. "All of us get a mood boost from bright sunlight," Ilardi said.

Treatment: Thirty minutes of daily exposure to sunlight. The program provides clients with a 10,000-lux light box. (Lux is a measure of illumination.) They can sit next to or under the light box to simulate light exposure on a sunny day."

...to advise anyone who's interested in this part of the therapy to just go to a tanning bed.
Before you jump all over me (not that you would), I used to work at one. Of course there is propaganda on both 'sides' of the argument for and against using them; but after over 12 years of use and my employment; I can say that like anything else, use in MODERATION is just fine; and quite beneficial. Another good benefit is that this exposure heightens the body's production of Vitamin D.
Two to three times max in a seven day period is a good average to maintain; those with fairer skin that still want to try can ask around for beds with UVA-only output; the UVB rays are the ones that can turn you red.
Of course this is not for everyone; but in case you wanted to try the therapy and this is a viable option I didn't want anyone to be overly intimidated about it. A lot cheaper than the light boxes described above, too.
Also, educate yourself/ask about the lotions; they make a big difference with your skin. There are ones that are aloe-based and ones that are oil-based. I personally use Supre's Impact; which contains within it a whole bottle of their product Sun Recover; which is the only thing that has successfully and quickly healed any sunburn I've ever had. You have to use ones that DO NOT have mineral oil in them because it damages the acrylics.

Okay; probably too much info; but if you have any questions feel free to ask; I will answer them to the best of my ability.

[hippiechick]

4. I agree with you, LilDreamer ...

Been a tanner myself since my teens.

I think its part of being a Leo.
Preferably outdoors on a glorious blue-sky day, feeling the earth on my paws and the breeze rustling thru my mane, but in winter, the intense shot of UV from a tanning bed will serve as an interim fix.


:hi: