Posted by bleauberry on September 8, 2011, at 19:23:38
In reply to Treatment Resistance / IBS link?, posted by Conundrum on September 5, 2011, at 21:17:40
IBS linked to depression? In my opinion, absolutely. Does that mean everyone with IBS might have depression? No. That gets more complicated, I think, with involvement of immune dysfunction, genetics, inflammation, and such.
How could IBS cause depression? Well, what is IBS? Inflammation of the gut basically. Something is irritated, swolen, inflamed. And of course that means two things might happen....stuff that should be absorbed might be partially wasted and not fully absorbed; or stuff that should not be absorbed is able to get through a damaged lining straight into the blood stream. Those large molecules than set off the immune system to attack them, so you've got a systemic inflammatory thing going on, toxic stuff floating around, and in no way does the brain get excused from taking a hit. Whatever the source of outside toxins in our blood, they can feel as potent or even more potent than an imaginary med designed to make you feel depressed. They interrupt all of the neurotransmitters, corrupt them, damage them, clog receptors, etc. So for some people it is no wonder the psych meds don't work....they aren't doing the right stuff for the problem at hand. In those cases, depression can be lifted with gut healing strategies instead of antidepressant strategies. IBS causes a bunch of stuff to happen that has potential to impact the brain in a negative way.
poster:bleauberry
thread:995976
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110902/msgs/996182.html