Anxiety

• Research confirms your diet can have a pronounced effect on your mental health
• Foods that promote good mental health do so by optimizing your gut microbiome, quelling inflammation, reversing insulin resistance and optimizing mitochondrial function
• Sugar, wheat (gluten) and processed foods have been linked to a greater risk for depression and anxiety. Diets low in animal-based omega-3 fats and folate also raise your risk
• Key dietary recommendations for the prevention of depression include following a “traditional” dietary pattern such as the Mediterranean diet and avoiding processed foods, fast food, commercial baked goods and sweets
• Another foundational strategy to prevent or treat depression and anxiety is to limit exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Studies have linked EMF exposure to an increased risk of both depression and suicide

Read more

Trodusquemine

Did you know that our body produces its own marijuana-like compound to protect us against anxiety? A study led by Ottawa researchers published today in Neuron reveals a new biological pathway that regulates anxiety and obesity and suggests that a drug currently in clinical trials to treat obesity might also provide a promising way to combat anxiety disorders.

"Anxiety and obesity are growing problems in society," said Dr. Hsiao-Huei Chen, associate professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa and a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. "Not only have we found a new biological pathway that regulates these two conditions, but we also found that they may be amenable to treatment with the same drug."

Chen and her colleagues were originally studying the effect of a gene called LMO4 on brain development and regeneration when they noticed that mice that lacked this gene in a certain part of the brain displayed anxious behaviour and became obese. Their new research, together with a previous study, shows that an enzyme called PTP1B plays a crucial role in a molecular pathway that links LMO4, anxiety, obesity and the body's natural marijuana (endocannabinoid) system. When the researchers used a drug, trodusquemine, that specifically inhibits the activity of PTP1B, they found that both anxiety and obesity were reduced.

"Current treatments for anxiety disorders have addiction issues and other side effects. Our approach lets the brain fix itself by simply re-instating the appropriate level of PTP1B," said Chen, who is also a member of the University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute.

Trodusquemine is in clinical trials for its effects on appetite control and weight loss, and also for its potential effect on breast cancer. Previous studies have found that people with metabolic and obesity-related diseases often suffer from mood or anxiety disorders. Knowing that a biological link exists between obesity and anxiety, it may be possible to treat the disorders in tandem.

"It is our hope that we can quickly start clinical trials to determine if this novel drug may be able to treat obesity and anxiety at the same time," added Chen, whose work on LMO4 has also linked it to diabetes.

Read more

Anxiety and heart disease

If you feel anxious now and then, that's perfectly normal. In fact, worrying can spur you to take positive action that may benefit your health, such as getting screening tests or doing regular exercise. But excessive worrying can have the opposite effect.

"Small amounts of anxiety and stress can push people to be more productive. The problem happens when anxiety becomes so overwhelming that you're unable to function normally," says Dr. Christopher Celano, a psychiatrist at the Cardiac Psychiatry Research Program at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. That level of worry and stress may represent an anxiety disorder, a group of conditions that affect some 40 million adults in this country.

One common form, generalized anxiety disorder, is characterized by at least six months of excessive worrying or feeling anxious about several unrelated events or activities almost every day (see "Do you have generalized anxiety disorder?"). About 5% of adults in the general population meet the criteria for generalized anxiety disorder. But the incidence is higher among people diagnosed with coronary artery disease (11%) or with heart failure (13%).

Less common but perhaps even more distressing is panic disorder, which is marked by bouts of intense anxiety, known as panic attacks. They may even cause chest pain or palpitations that are so severe you think you're having a heart attack (see "When anxiety symptoms masquerade as a heart attack").

Read more