You’ve just been given some terrible news. A healthcare provider has just diagnosed you with major depression and prescribed one of the typical SSRI or SNIR anti-depressants like Prozac, Luvox, Lexapro, Paxil, or Zoloft. I have some good news for you. There’s about a 95% chance that your diagnosis is incorrect! How the heck is that even possible in today’s world of modern medicine? Let me walk you through it.
The official manual of mental disorders is DSM-5. Major depression rattles off a list of nine typical symptoms, including feeling down most of the time, insomnia, thoughts of death, poor concentration, increased or decreased appetite/weight loss or weight gain, and others. You need five or more of these criteria to be diagnosed with major depression. You might have noticed they discuss increased and decreased appetite, and weight loss and weight gain as criteria. How is it possible that both polar opposite criteria can be included? Good question and I have the answer. The geniuses at DSM dealt with this dilemma by creating a subclass of major depression they termed “atypical depression” to account for the folks with an increased appetite and weight gain.
This complexity didn’t exist throughout most of human history. Major depression has been described throughout recorded human history. It was a rare disorder that was always associated with loss of appetite and weight loss. If you didn’t lose your appetite and lose weight, you couldn’t be diagnosed with major depression. That changed over the past 70-80 years, coinciding with our current obesity epidemic when a lot of apparently depressed folks showed up with an increased appetite, carbohydrate cravings, and weight gain. This group now makes up the majority of depressed patients. The folks at DSM were likely sitting around drinking coffee and eating donuts when they decided to classify this group as “atypical depression.” I have news for you. Atypical depression does exist, and it has absolutely nothing to do with true major depression. Let me explain.
At the beginning of our current obesity epidemic, as a scientist, I knew that obesity is defined as excessive body fat. Thus, I couldn’t understand why the so-called experts recommended using body mass index (BMI), a size measure that tells you absolutely nothing about the amount of fat in your body. I purchased FDA-approved equipment to measure body composition, and for decades, I measured the body composition of every patient at every visit. I also had a strong interest in neuroscience, and over time, I noticed something very odd. Specific brain dysfunction symptoms seemed to track with changes in body composition. When these symptoms got worse, within a few weeks, the percentage of body fat in their body would always increase. If adequate treatment improved symptoms, a few weeks later, the percentage of body fat in their body would decrease. I concluded that the brain calls the shots when it comes to storing excess body fat.
It soon became apparent to me that this fit the pattern of a disease. Over time, I concluded that this brain disorder is triggered by exposure to ultra-processed food. That’s why I decided to name this disease Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. It was also evident to me that all cases of “atypical depression” are, in reality, CARB syndrome, a form of diet-induced brain dysfunction that has no connection to true major depression. True major depression was rare 2,000 years ago, and it’s still rare today. CARB syndrome, which somewhat looks like depression because of some overlapping symptoms, likely didn’t exist 2,000 years ago, yet today it’s an epidemic.
It’s a similar fiasco when it comes to diagnosing the other major forms of depression, like bipolar disorder. Classic bipolar disorder has been around since ancient times, and it’s associated with depression, insomnia, and manic psychosis, where the individual completely loses contact with reality for a period of time. In the past 50-70 years, we started to see a lot of folks with depression, insomnia, and hypomania rather than mania. In these episodes, they tend to be hyperactive but never psychotic. The donut-eating, coffee-drinking geniuses at DSM decided to name the classic disease bipolar disorder I, and the more recent form bipolar disorder II. I have news for you—bipolar disorder is an authentic but rare mental disorder. In contrast, bipolar II is CARB syndrome, and it has absolutely nothing to do with classic bipolar disorder.
Unfortunately, your healthcare provider is likely unaware of these issues. Hence, they often end up treating you with standard anti-depressant medications for apparent depression and anti-psychotics for apparent bipolar disorder. These medications won’t work because, in reality, you have CARB syndrome, leading to poor physical health and mental health, and your body will store more excess body fat—not exactly where you want to go.
If you fit the CARB syndrome pattern, treatment is straightforward.
- Because CARB syndrome is associated with excess inflammation, I recommend supplementing with a high-quality omega-3 supplement, as my friend Barry Sears of Zone Diet fame recommends. His excellent Zone website has all the details.
- Because low levels of monoamine neurotransmitters cause the symptoms of CARB syndrome, I recommend taking a precursor supplement like CARB-22 to rebuild your neurotransmitter levels and suppress the sugar and starch cravings that drive the illness. If your cravings don’t disappear, add the amino acid L-glutamine 500 mg twice daily.
- Eating a whole-food diet with minimal or no ultra-processed food is also essential.
- Limit caloric intake to a reasonable level.
- Start an exercise program with aerobic and strength training when your energy levels improve through treatment.
Ethically, I cannot directly recommend that you stop medications that have been prescribed for you. That’s between you and your physician. You might consider giving them a copy of this article, and if they want to discuss these issues with me, they can contact me at docww@aol.com. The good news is that you can follow the above steps to improve your health while taking medications, even if the medicines aren’t working well.
If you follow my plan, your brain function will improve, you will slowly lose excess body fat without typical “dieting”, and you might be able to taper off many or all your psychiatric medications. What “good news” could be better than that?