Is depression a kind of allergic reaction?

[greygoose]

This sounds like a very reasonable explanation to me, and would explain why hypothyroidism causes depression.

theguardian.com/lifeandstyl...

[PR4NOW]

Grey, it is good to see the cytokine theory being discussed more. It is actually about 25 years old. Another example of just how long it takes for medicine to change. PR

[greygoose in reply to PR4NOW]

Indeed. No-one could accuse them of rushing into things!

[greygoose]

Well, it could be. But anythings better than the old 'chemical imbalance' theory, that could only be treated by dangerous drugs! It's about time they started thinking out of the box.

[shaws Administrator]

It does sound a reasonable explanation. It doesn't say whether he uses T3 for depressed patients although they have tried:-

"The good news is that the few clinical trials done so far have found that adding anti-inflammatory medicines to antidepressants not only improves symptoms, it also increases the proportion of people who respond to treatment, although more trials will be needed to confirm this. There is also some evidence that omega 3 and curcumin, an extract of the spice turmeric, might have similar effects. Both are available over the counter and might be worth a try, although as an add-on to any prescribed treatment – there’s definitely not enough evidence to use them as a replacement."

Also mentioned is Bi-polar which is helped by T3 being prescribed. So what if all depression can be helped by thyroid hormones, despite the blood tests showing 'normal' TSH. The brain as we know, has more T3 receptor cells.

psycheducation.org/thyroid/...

[PR4NOW in reply to shaws]

shaws, that is an interesting website, I will have to spend more time looking it over. Thanks, PR

[shaws Administrator in reply to PR4NOW]

It will be good to hear your views. As we know many people are incarcerated in hospitals as their TSH didn't 'fit' so were deemed not to be hypothyroid.

[PR4NOW in reply to shaws]

shaws, he is part of a group using high T4 for bipolar and thinks high T3 works better for severe depression. I didn't realize there was a school of thought supporting high T4 for bipolar. There is no question that hypothyroidism can cause clinical depression, been there, done that. If you look at the literature from the late 1800s to early 1900s what they observed was everything from mild depression to frank insanity and everything in-between including auditory and visual hallucinations and a whole lot of paranoia. Given Bianco's last paper it makes me wonder what NDT would do for bipolar. PR

[shaws Administrator in reply to PR4NOW]

Thanks for info.

I feel sorry for suffering people who rely on doctors to know what's wrong with them and then they get any other labels, particularly when there is a big stigma if people have to be hospitalized for their condition.