Overcoming Depression Through Environment: A Thought Experiment

Some time ago, I wrote an article on the Engineering of Depression through the environment. The article started as a tweet storm that went viral, and it became one of my most widely read articles.

The premise was simple: how could you create the environmental condition that would lead someone to experience depressive symptoms?

As I pointed out, it was not hard to do. There were eight factors in total, which I later added to and brought to 10 factors

-lack of sleep and disrupted sleep
-dopamine addiction to blue light and constant stimulus
-high carb, high sugar diet
-nutrient deficiency
-poor gut health
-social isolation
-lack of sunlight
-obesity
-lack of physical activity
-poor hormonal health (low testosterone in men, estrogen-progesterone imbalance in women)

after that article was published, I received many messages, a fair number of which asked,

“What should I do then?”

I thought this obvious, but I realized it was not axiomatic as presumed. Telling people what caused a problem does automatically suffice at telling them how to solve it.

So that leads us to this article.

To preface-This is not “medical advice”, since this is the internet and I feel obligated to say it. It also does not supplant the usage of medications.

Overcoming Depression Through Environment and Bodily Health, A How-To

This both environmental and physical, as you might presume. This is not a precise sequential order, many of these would happen at the same time, but it listing things in steps is always useful.

1. Get sunlight-sunlight prompts vitamin D response, something many people are low in. It also actively guides circadian rhythm and hormone production. You can reduce testosterone levels in a man, shut down a woman’s menstrual cycle completely by shutting off exposure to sunlight.

This is basic then, but powerful. If you are someone prone to depressive symptoms, or in another hypothetical, if I was to create an “Anti-depression Retreat” of some kind, I would have everyone waking up with the sign, being directly exposed to the morning light for at least 30 minutes, and then would take them outside periodically every 2–3 hours to acclimate to a normal diurnal cycle. Along with this, all light exposure would be limited after sunset

2. Walking-I’ve expounded on the benefits of walking many times. For someone that does not exercise, and exercise is PROVEN to alleviate depressive symptoms, its the most accessible form of exercise you can do. Ideally, you would walk while being outside, which would double the benefits

3. Do Not Socially Isolate Yourself-I could have this number one, but let’s call it number 3. If you are outside and walking, make it a social experience.
I am well aware that not all depression manifests as social withdrawal, and that it is a stereotype that people are lonely, at least in the sense that they are not around people. That said, many depressed individuals DO feel lonely, are lonely, and there is enormous anecdotal evidence from survivors of suicide who expressed that had ANYONE talked to them prior to their attempts to end their life, they probably would not have gone through it. Or that they stopped themselves, because a text, phone call, or interaction with someone happy to see them led to back away from the metaphorical edge.

4. Reduce Stimulants-This will be difficult, but necessary. Caffeine addicts have skewed adrenal response, and tapering down the need for constant caffeine to stay normally functional will go a long ways towards improving normal brain chemistry.

5. Reduce sugar and processed carb intake-The evidence for a low carb diet continues to pile up. Carbs are not bad, but relative to most people’s activity level, they do not need to the be majority of someone’s eating. Fat, Protein, Carbs in that order. The effects of high sugar, high carb intake contribute to stored body, high levels of insulin, metabolic syndrome, and overall systemic inflammation

As systemic inflammation is very common in those with depression, as is excess bodyfat (not always, but it doesn’t HELP at all to be overweight), and sugar and processed carbs tend to lead to poor gut health, eliminating these two things completely should powerfully improve health.

There is an abundance of evidence from low carb and keto dieters that their depression, arthritis, autoimmune conditions, all essentially disappeared after making their dietary changes. That is not insubstantial, and if nothing else, it demonstrates how diet plays a far greater role in depression than modern medicine has yet to recognize.

6. Increase Healthy Fat Intake (omega 3s) and eliminate unhealthy fat intake-Fish oil has been proven to combat depression. Imbalanced diets of inflammatory omega 6 and 9 fats are linked to depression. The health benefits of omega 3s, and fish oil in particular, they are very extensive.

For dietary fats, eat eggs, animal protein (this includes fatty fish). Consume nuts. Use fats from FRUITS or NUTs, not vegetables.

Coconut oil
Red Palm Oil
Avocado Oil
Peanut Oil
Walnut Oil
Olive Oil

As I’ve said many times, no vegetable oil, at all. No margarine, no fake fats from processed carbs.

7. Improve gut biome health-A study came out recently demonstrating that probiotics alleviated depression in postpartum pregnant women. That is POWERFUL evidence, especially considering the hormonal environment in such women and how imbalanced it can be.

As of right now, I do not have any recommended probiotics brand. I do suggest fermented foods (yogurt, kefir, pickles, kimchi, sauerkraut), and if anyone wants to make any recommendations on probiotics, by all means, do so.

8. Hard Exercise-If you’ve gone through the steps so far, then you are prepared for more vigorous physical activity. This means “lift weights”. Aside from the 10,000 health benefits which I’ve shared time and time again, lifting weights does a few key things

-prompts endorphin and dopamine release
-strengthens the immune system
-leads to LOWER inflammation in the body due to improved immune system functionality
-balances and leads to more optimized hormones (oversimplification, but it does)

9. Drop Bodyfat, Be Lean-Anyone that is carrying excess adipose tissue in the stomach has some level of insulin resistance, possible estrogen dominance, and excess level of inflammation. Losing that fat has major effect on improving health.

Lean bodyfat % for a man=10–15%
Lean bodyfat% for a woman=20–25%

Being leaner than that is excellent, but not readily sustainable for most people, and can take a number of years to achieve.

10. Sleep-Shouldn’t sleep be first, and not last? I could argue that, but I’ve found that better sleep is better achieved through fixing that factors that LEAD to it, rather than trying to force it.
With the restoration of circadian rhythm, exercise, diet, and an overall reduction in bodily stress, falling asleep becomes easier.

11. Address deficiencies and make use of possibly helpful supplements-if someone is doing all of the above, they are making progress. That said, I’m endlessly amazed at the more I study nutrition in depth, the more apparent it becomes how many diseases have a dietary component.

Aside from the changes in diet, consider the following supplements being helpful

-Omega 3s-as was said, these reduce inflammation and depressive symptoms

-N Acetyl Cysteine-an amino acid that increases Glutathione levels, there is massive anecdotal evidence of it essentially curing people of their anxiety, depression, and at the very least massively improving mood. Its effects seem to be related to combatting inflammation and remedying glutathione deficiency

-Vitamins B and Vitamin D-Insufficient levels of both of these are associated with depression. Both are extremely cheap and easy to supplement with

12. Remove toxic influences-I was surprised by the number of messages I received after the first article from people describing how much their life improved after removing negative friends and family that were making them more depressed.

One of the downfalls of depression is the learned helplessness attitude it can cultivate that attracts and reinforces parasitic and unhealthy relationships.
Said simple, people who are not good for you now will not become good for you later. Toxicity can never be its own tonic, and neither can toxic people overcome themselves.

Remove these people from the sphere of what affects you.

In Closing

Could one still be depressed if they did all the above? Absolutely, but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t at least a lessening of the severity of the depression. Further, living the above lifestyle would make it very difficult to become profoundly depressed for very long. You would be far more resilient to depression, and stress in general.