Depression Archive

The world moves at a hectic pace these days. If you feel like you're constantly running on empty, you're not alone. Many people say that they just don't have the energy they need to accomplish all they need to. Sometimes the cause of fatigue is obvious — for example, getting over the flu or falling short on sleep. Sometimes a vitamin deficiency is part of the problem. It might be worth asking your doctor to check a few vitamin levels, such as the three we've listed below.

• Iron. Anemia occurs when there aren't enough red blood cells to meet the body's need for oxygen, or when these cells don't carry enough of an important protein called hemoglobin. Fatigue is usually the first sign of anemia. A blood test to measure the number of red blood cells and amount of hemoglobin can tell if you have anemia. The first step in shoring up your body's iron supply is with iron-rich foods (such as red meat, eggs, rice, and beans) or, with your doctor's okay, over-the-counter supplements.
   
• Vitamin B₁₂. Your body needs sufficient vitamin B₁₂ in order to produce healthy red blood cells.  So a deficiency in this vitamin can also cause anemia. The main sources of B₁₂ are meat and dairy products, so many people get enough through diet alone. However, it becomes harder for the body to absorb B₁₂ as you get older, and some illnesses (for example, inflammatory bowel disease) can also impair absorption. Many vegetarians and vegans become deficient in B₁₂ because they don't eat meat or dairy. When B₁₂ deficiency is diet-related, oral supplements and dietary changes to increase B₁₂ intake usually do the trick. Other causes of B₁₂ deficiency are usually treated with regular injections of vitamin B₁₂.
   
• Vitamin D. A deficit of this vitamin can sap bone and muscle strength. This vitamin is unique in that your body can produce it when your skin is exposed to sunlight, but there also aren't many natural food sources of it. You can find it in some types of fish (such as tuna and salmon) and in fortified products such as milk, orange juice, and breakfast cereals. Supplements are another way to ensure you're getting enough vitamin D (note that the D₃ form is easier to absorb than other forms of vitamin D).

For more ways to combat fatigue, buy Boosting Your Energy, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.

Extra-virgin olive oil and nuts seem to contribute to the benefits.

A heart-healthy lifestyle is strongly associated with better memory and lower risk of Alzheimer's disease.

The health press is full of claims that "superfoods"—like fresh berries and leafy greens—can keep your memory sharp and hold the threat of Alzheimer's disease at bay. But for now, the evidence is preliminary at best. Your safest bet is to lead an overall heart-healthy lifestyle—including eating a plant-based diet and getting regular exercise—rather than drawing up a shopping list of alleged brain-boosting superfoods.

Now we have a better tool to calculate your chance of a brain attack if you've been diagnosed with afib.

Atrial fibrillation (afib) is among the most common heart rhythm irregularities. During a bout of afib, the usually rhythmic contractions of the heart muscle's upper chambers (the atria) are replaced by an ineffectual quiver that does not completely move blood out of the heart chamber. As a result, blood can stagnate and form clots. These clots can then travel to the brain and cause an ischemic stroke.

Here's another reason to get depression treated as soon as possible: a Harvard study found that people with persistent symptoms of severe depression were twice as likely to suffer a stroke compared with people who have mild symptoms. The study appeared May 13, 2015, in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers looked at the health information of more than 16,000 men and women ages 50 and older. The participants were interviewed every two years during a 12-year period and asked about many health issues, including depression symptoms. Researchers found that people who reported high depression symptoms at two consecutive interviews were more than twice as likely to have a first stroke than people with low depression symptoms. The stroke risk remained high even after depression symptoms went away.

The study showed only an association, and didn't prove that depression causes strokes. So why the link? Researchers speculate that depression—which is associated with high blood pressure, increased inflammation, and physical inactivity—may have a cumulative effect that causes damage to the blood vessels over time. Bottom line: Seek treatment if a case of the blues lasts more than two weeks, because it could be a sign of depression.

Find out if your sleeping habits put you at risk—and what to do about it.

Heavy snoring and sleep apnea may be linked to early declines in memory and thinking, according to a new study published online April 15, 2015, by the journal Neurology. The research also suggests that treating sleep apnea with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine may delay the declines.

For the study, researchers reviewed the medical histories for 2,470 people ages 55 to 90 and categorized them as free of memory and thinking problems, in early stages of mild cognitive impairment, or with Alzheimer's disease. For each category, the researchers compared people without sleep apnea, people with untreated sleep apnea, and people with sleep apnea who had used CPAP machines to aid breathing as they slept.

A mini mental status exam or a thorough cognitive assessment can give you answers and may improve your qualify of life.

Women are at greater risk for dementia. Joining clinical trials can help to speed the development of promising drugs.

Hospice care improves quality of life in the dire circumstances of a person’s last days. It can enable the dying to spend this time in peace, surrounded by family and friends, and in little pain. Studies confirm what many know intuitively. Family members are likely to experience major depression following the loss of a loved one. A recent study published in today’s online JAMA Internal Medicine looked at whether hospice care reduces the severity of bereavement-related depression in people who had recently lost a spouse. While the researchers saw no difference between spouses whose partners were enrolled in hospice and those how weren’t, major depression was less common in spouses who received support from a hospice program.