Functional Medicine is a collaborative, personalized, evidence-based approach that seeks to find the root cause of a person’s condition rather than just treating the symptoms. It moves away from the “pill for every ill” scenario to a deeper dive into the individual’s history, lifestyle, genetic predispositions etc. in order to devise a specific plan for optimal health. By searching for root causes it becomes evident how one condition may have many different precursors or for that matter lead to many different consequences.
The traditional medical model tends to see depression mainly as having a singular cause, ie. a chemical imbalance or antidepressant deficiency. However, research shows that antidepressants, whilst helpful in reducing symptoms for those with severe depression, are ineffective for about 85% of those with mild to moderate depression. A fraction of the latter class of people do have psychosocial contexts related to their depression. However, there is a large portion of people whose symptoms persist beyond any psychosocial stressor.
Functional medicine in its root cause approach to depression, looks at the many possible associated precursors and triggers. Some of these include:
- Hormonal dysregulation – several different hormonal systems impact brain neurotransmitter functioning and any dysregulation in these symptoms can impact mood, just one such example is the mood changes that women experience during the hormonal changes of onset of menstruation, during pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause.
- Chronic stress impacts the balance of HPA axis functioning as it is constant overdrive which can result in mood dysregulation.
- Chronic infections have been shown to have a strong correlation with depression.
- Environmental factors and toxins such as mold can be disruptive to the body systems, cause inflammation and a burden to the immune system, resultant in depression
- Other inflammatory conditions, can impact the immune system and even blood sugar imbalances have been associated with depression as well.
- Amino acids and vitamins are required as building blocks for neurotransmitters and so the amount and balance of these impact neurotransmitter production are important.
- Certain genetics influence neurotransmitter processes and individual gene variants can impact these processes.
- A large percentage of neurotransmitters are made in the gut. Hence paying attention to the gut microbiome and gut bacteria balance is necessary.
- Nutrition – the food you eat can be inflammatory to your body as well and can be the root of your depression. Furthermore, depending on the state of your gut microbiome, even with more “nutritious” food, digestion and absorption of nutrients still need to be optimal for neurotransmitter production.
- Sleep/sleep dysregulation – sleep plays significant roles for us biologically, neurogically, mentally and emotionally and a chronically disrupted sleep can be equated to experiencing brain trauma! Poor sleep has strong associations to low mood. Excessive exposure to artificial light, for example from screens and devices at night, is particularly damaging for our sleep cycles.
- Vitamin D levels and sunlight exposure – Many studies have shown a link between Vitamin D deficiency and depression. Sunlight is a great source of Vitamin D, however with many people spending minimal time outdoors there is a tendency for people to have low Vitamin D levels.
- Movement – lack of movement and physical activity is not only correlated with poor physical health but there is a lot of research correlating increase in movement with improved mood.
- Psychosocial factors and quality of social connections – besides particular stressful or traumatic experiences, not having quality, meaning connections in life has definitely been associated with low mood as well.
Taking the Functional Medicine approach it becomes evident that the root cause of depression for each person could be completely unique and invariably requires an individualized approach.
The next step in addressing most of these underlying areas is often first and foremost lifestyle adjustment and it is at this intersection that a functional medicine certified health coach becomes an integral part of a person’s recovery journey. A FM health coach is well versed in the root cause approach and can assist you with information as well as tools and strategies to effect change and create an optimal lifestyle towards optimal mental wellness.