For a long time, we have been experiencing increases in conversations about mental health, and that is certainly a good thing. It has led to a reduction in stigma, and to people becoming more and more aware of the importance of taking care of themselves, and of getting professional help when they need it. Read more on caring for your mental health.
In recent years, though, those conversations have spread beyond medications and psychotherapy. While those have been in the spotlight for a long time, and while they have every right to still be in the spotlight, given how helpful they can be, there is no denying the fact that we have to talk about something else as well. About something that can affect our mental health and even the effects of some medications we may be taking, such as SSRIs, and that we have control over.
To cut right to the chase, I am referring to our diet. To the things we are eating. And, more specifically, to ultra-processed foods, because we all tend to indulge in those. While indulging from time to time is completely normal and shouldn’t be considered to be something that bad, the truth is that a lot of people consume this type of food on a daily basis, and that can undeniably be a problem.
I am not talking simply about the fact that this can be a problem for our general health, both physical and psychological. After all, I am assuming that you are already aware of that, and that you understand how ultra-processed foods can promote chronic inflammation, thus leading to you developing certain depressive symptoms, fatigue, as well as anxiety symptoms and similar. In short, I am sure you get that UPF can have a negative impact on your mental health.But, there is something else that deserves our attention here, and that GeneSight offers an insight on as a useful source. So, when you check out the GeneSight Blog on Ultra-Processed Foods/SSRIs, you will immediately understand that, apart from negatively affecting our overall mental health, these types of foods can also negatively affect the, well, effects of the medications we may be taking for certain problems. Most prominently SSRIs.
What Are SSRIs?
Before we get to talking about the effects of UPF on SSRIs, what we have to do is make sure that you understand what these medications are in the first place and how they work. That is when the insight offered by GeneSight will really start making sense. Because, you have to understand these medications in order to understand how they can be affected by UPF in the first place. So, let me cut to the chase and make things clearer here.
In the simplest words possible, SSRIs are a class of antidepressants that are nowadays commonly prescribed for conditions such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and similar. They are a newer class of drugs, and they have been researched thoroughly for both their effects and their side-effects, with the former definitely outweighing the latter. Meaning that the side-effects tend to be quite mild, and that is a huge improvement compared to some older classes of antidepressants that people have been given a long time ago.
Anyway, how do these work specifically? To put things simply, they work by blocking the reuptake of serotonin. Meaning, thus, that when this particular neurotransmitter enters the synaptic cleft, it will stay there for a prolonged period of time, given that the medications will prevent its reuptake. And, since serotonin is known as the “happy hormone”, I suppose you understand that more of it being active in your brain and your entire body will result in you being in a better mood. But, apart from that, this will also regulate your appetite, your sleep, your energy levels, motivation, and a lot of other processes crucial for your normal functioning.
Here is even more about these medications: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/24795-ssri
How Does UPF Affect Them?
What do ultra-processed foods have to do with any of this, though? Or, more precisely, how is it that UPF will affect these medications? Well, for one thing, when you eat a lot of UPF while on SSRIs, you can definitely expect the effects of the medications to be kind of reduced, given that these foods will promote inflammation, as well as lead to blood sugar spikes, all of which will prevent the medications from doing their job successfully, as explained by GeneSight or similar useful sources.
Furthermore, there is the fact that the gut and the brain are connected, and that around 90% of serotonin is produced in the gut. A production that cannot be completed properly if your gut bacteria is disrupted, which can certainly happen when you are consuming a lot of UPF. So, put things simply, UPF can offset the effects of these medications, which is another reason why you should reduce their consumption in order to improve your mental health.
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