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This High-Dose Vitamin Reduces Depression And Anxiety
While the effects were weaker than antidepressant medication, there were also far fewer side-effects.
While the effects were weaker than antidepressant medication, there were also far fewer side-effects.
High doses of vitamin B6 supplements reduce feelings of depression and anxiety, a trial finds.
After taking the supplements every day for a month, people reported feeling their mental health improve.
While the effects were weaker than antidepressant medication, there were also far fewer side-effects.
The amount of vitamin B6 ingested in the study exceeds what can realistically be obtained from a normal diet, so supplements are required.
B6 and GABA
B6 supplements are thought to work by providing a calming effect on the brain.
B6 is known to have a role in how the body manufactures Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
GABA typically has a relaxing effect on the mind, hence higher levels of GABA in the brain are linked to lower levels of anxiety.
Dr David Field, the study’s first author, explained:
“The functioning of the brain relies on a delicate balance between the excitatory neurons that carry information around and inhibitory ones, which prevent runaway activity.
Recent theories have connected mood disorders and some other neuropsychiatric conditions with a disturbance of this balance, often in the direction of raised levels of brain activity.
Vitamin B6 helps the body produce a specific chemical messenger that inhibits impulses in the brain, and our study links this calming effect with reduced anxiety among the participants.”
50 times the recommended dose
The study included over 300 people, some of whom took vitamin B6, others vitamin B12 and the remainder a placebo.
Only vitamin B6 helped to reduce levels of anxiety and depression.
The amounts given were 50 times the recommended daily dose, which is why it would be hard to get these levels from a normal diet.
Dr Field explained:
“Many foods, including tuna, chickpeas and many fruits and vegetables, contain Vitamin B6.
However, the high doses used in this trial suggest that supplements would be necessary to have a positive effect on mood.
It is important to acknowledge that this research is at an early stage and the effect of Vitamin B6 on anxiety in our study was quite small compared to what you would expect from medication.
However, nutrition-based interventions produce far fewer unpleasant side effects than drugs, and so in the future people might prefer them as an intervention.
To make this a realistic choice, further research is needed to identify other nutrition-based interventions that benefit mental wellbeing, allowing different dietary interventions to be combined in future to provide greater results.
One potential option would be to combine Vitamin B6 supplements with talking therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to boost their effect.”
→ Related: Intense exercise increases the levels of two common neurotransmitters that are linked to depression.
The study was published in the journal Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental (Field et al., 2022).
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The Diet Linked To 40% Higher Depression Risk
Cutting these out of your diet helps reduce depression risk.
Cutting these out of your diet helps reduce depression risk.
A diet of ‘inflammatory foods’ is linked to a 40 percent higher risk of depression, research concludes.
Common inflammatory foods include fast food, cake and processed meats.
These all have high levels of saturated fats, cholesterol and carbohydrate.
Fast foods and the like cause excess inflammation in the body, which is linked to depression.
An anti-inflammatory diet includes more vitamins, fibre and unsaturated fats.
The Mediterranean diet, containing tomatoes, green vegetables, olive oil and fatty fish is anti-inflammatory.
The conclusions come a review of 11 separate studies that included over 100,000 people living in the US, Australia and Europe.
Everyone reported how inflammatory their diet was, as well as any depression symptoms.
The results showed that people eating ‘pro-inflammatory’ diets had a 40 percent higher risk of developing depression or depressive symptoms.
The same was true for young and old.
Inflammation is how the body protects itself against toxins.
However, brain cells are killed when the body remains in a constant state of high alert, while fighting toxins.
Dr Steven Bradburn, study co-author, said:
“These results have tremendous clinical potential for the treatment of depression, and if it holds true, other diseases such as Alzheimer’s which also have an underlying inflammatory component.
Simply changing what we eat may be a cheaper alternative to pharmacological interventions, which often come with side-effects.
This work builds on recent advances in the field by others, including the first ever clinical trial into dietary interventions for treating depression, which have shown beneficial improvements in depressive symptoms.
It should be stressed, however, that our findings are an association, rather than causality.
Further work is needed to confirm the efficacy of modulating dietary patterns in treating depression with relation to inflammation.”
The study was published in the journal Clinical Nutrition (Tolkein et al., 2018).
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