Combatting depression with Meditation and Diet, 2011 Science Friday interview with Dr. Andrew Weil, Director, Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. Watch a short CNN interview with Dr. Weil taped in early March, 2013, on the health care system to get a better appreciation of his perspective. 25:07 minutes.

  1. In Ira Flatow’s introduction, he quotes Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data saying that there has been a 400% increase in antidepressant prescriptions since 1988 and that __?__ of people over the age of 12 are on an antidepressant.
  2. Ira Flatow quotes from Dr. Weil’s book, “Spontaneous Happiness,” saying, “the notion that a human being should be constantly happy is ______
  3. Dr. Weil talks about how Pharmaceutical companies have convinced people that normal periods of sadness need to be treated as depression and that modern life sets up a mismatch between genetics and lifestyle, allowing us to live in an isolated cocoon that predisposes us to depression. He goes on to say that hunter-gatherers don’t experience depression citing several things about their lifestyle he believes is why: ______

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  1. Throughout this interview, Dr. Weil provides a basic recommendation to help mood, which is to get more exercise. At one point, he talks about a specific dietary change he believes is critical because of the integration of this material in brain phospholipid membranes. The material he recommends adding to the diet: ______
  2. He claims that the main reason our diet has become so omega 6 dense is that livestock are no longer grazed and fattened on grass, they are fed ______
  3. The Stoics in ancient Greece practiced “Positive Psychology,” the main tenant of which is that “we can’t change what happens to us, but ______.” This takes practice.
  4. SSRIs are the number one prescribed class of antidepressants. Dr. Weil says their effects cannot be distinguished from placebo and other interventions, except in cases of very severe depression. He talks about the fact that SSRIs cause depression, something called ______
  5. He recommends that if someone has been taking an antidepressant for over a year, they should find a practitioner who can help wean them off the drugs while using alternatives. He emphasizes two things at this point, one is ensuring ______levels are adequate and the other comes from what he calls “secular spirituality,” which is ______a task that has been shown after one week of use to improve mood for 6 months.
  6. Eastern psychology is the basis for most meditation techniques. The general tenant is to ______. Dr. Weil believes that a problem with modern technology is that it promotes multi tasking, something our brains do not actually do. That this then promotes fragmented attention that leads to poor emotional health.
  7. The Cytokine Theory of Depression was presented in lecture and he discusses it at length. This novel way of considering depression forms the basis of Dr. Weil’s anti-inflammatory diet. He mentions interferon and interleukins as two of these cytokines (cell signaling chemicals produced by WBCs). These drugs are notorious for causing ______which are warnings (or boxed warnings) on these drugs.