Forgive the length of this post but, hey I can get wordy at times :)

I used to be depressed as well, in addition to having a sleep disorder, at
least that's what my doctors said.  I had tried a few drugs before I settled
into Prozac and generic Xanax (sp?).  After a few years I was determined to
get off drugs, but it was very difficult and caused me make many changes in
my lifestyle because of relapses.  Yet, once I reduced my carbohydrate intake
on the Atkins diet I started to feel much better.  I took some general
supplements, not ones specifically for depression, and that helped even more.
 But, the big change came from the Paleodiet. I have since looked into some
of the reasons that this might have help so much and found that there are
probably three major factors.

1)  Carbos -- I have read the Serotonin Solution which suggests the Potatoes
for Prozac idea.  It is basically "feed carbs on a steadier stream than most
americans and use carbs like a drug."  Obviously this is stupidly
oversimplified, but you get the idea.  The assumption is that one must have
carbs in the ammounts currently reccomended by the health community.  From
this premise its conlusions are good, but as we know this premise is faulty
and thus its conclusion is no good for us.  However, carbs CAN be used as a
drug if one is so inclined.  Of course there is more to carbs than this.  The
GI of the food is important as is the allergy factor. which brings me to ...

2)  The allergy factor -- This is well known to most of us here.  I know that
this is a blurry topic, but here is my personal take on it with regard to
depression.  If I eat certain foods for too many meals in too short a time I
start to have my old symptoms of sleep disorder and depression.  As I have
been aware of the Paleodiet for about two years, I have had opportunity under
many conditions to note this effect.  Foods that are a problem are mainly
wheat and corn - a big duh for this list, eh?  But in addition to the health
issues, which I also note, I do actually FELL bad emotionaly and display
other depressed traits.

3)  Caffeine -- This may be one of the biggest factors in daily life aside
from Carb intake.  I have noticed it negative effect on my depression many
times.  Caffeine Blues has been mentioned on the list a number of times and I
finally read it.  I have not checked the reference studies, but it seems to
be a good review of caffeine science and the author makes a good case for
reduced caffeine consumption.  One issue I have not been able to check is the
consumption of caffeine in HG populations.  Still, I can personally attest
that caffeine definately causes me problems with depression.

Of some interest is MSG and its cohorts.  I am not sure of the real
connection to depression, but I feel like crap after eating too much of these
"flavorings."  The book Excitotoxins implicates them in certain brain
disordrrs, but I don't think depression was discussed in any detail.  Still,
in theory, any substance that interferes with normal neurotransmitter
function could affect depression.  Of course on the paleodiet this shouldn't
be a problem.

Dr. Atkins in Vitanutrient Solutions has a list of reccommended supplements
that are supposed to help with Depression, and much of this list is presented
by other researches in that field as well.  Though according the Paleo
principle one shout make effort to achieve the effect from natural foods and
practices.

Someone else posted about the book on paleo sleep patterns and this is
relevent here as well.  Sleep is probably the most important non-diet
component to fighting depression.  It is important to get four or more
episodes of stage 4/deep sleep every night and at least eight hours.  Now,
everybody is different, so one may need 7 hours and another 9, but getting
good sleep is the issue.  I have not had the chance to do light therapy long
term, but when I was in the sleep clinic they used it to wake me up and I
THINK that it helped.  There is some clinical research on this, but I don't
have it, so I can't really comment intelligently on it.

Lastly, excersie may help as well.  I like the work done by Thiessen (sp?) in
Survival of the Fittest about excersise.  And I'd love to see DeVavy's book
on paleo style excersise too.  These are both probably on the right track.  I
hate to work out and I never get the runners high, but over time it also
seems to help my mental as well as physical health.

Acting on the above ideas I am drug free and have had only one major and a
handful of minor episodes of depression in three years.  In each of these,
though, I identified multiple breeches in security, so to speak.  That is, I
had been cheating on the diet -g.

Dori, Justin and others, I would love to hear your comments.

Nick Schultz