I recently had a brake problem in my car, and the diagnosis I made was completely different from the one my mechanic made.  My diagnosis was descriptive, “the brakes squeak and the car pulls to the left,” I said to my mechanic.  The diagnosis he made was that the rotors and brake pads were worn down. 

My diagnosis, like the ones often given to patients who suffer from psychiatric disorders, was descriptive of symptoms.  The other meaning of the word diagnosis is to define the cause.  That’s what depression really is; definitive, testable, modifiable causes.  The causes can be immunological (e.g., gluten sensitivity), infectious (e.g., Candida or Lyme), allergic (e.g., pollen), toxic (e.g., mercury), metabolic (e.g., hypoglycemia), psycho emotional (e.g., irrational thinking, or unfinished emotional trauma (PTSD) and/or genetic issues (e.g., methylation problems). 

Here is a short list of 21 other causes of depression:

Given the exuberant response to the article Methylation 101: What it Means for Your Health, I have been encouraged to write a second article to continue the discussion.  In the first article, I introduced the idea that those with “methylation defects” are relatively less capable of methylating away the fight/flight neurotransmitter noradrenalin and are thus likely to incur a more heightened and sustained stress response from stressors of any cause (emotional, metabolic e.g., low blood sugar), infectious (e.g., candida), toxic (e.g., mercury) or energetic (e.g., wi-fis and microwaves). 

Having a heightened tendency to be motivated by extra stress, the up-side of having methylation defects can compel such people to have increased drive to succeed and be more productive!

The Good and Bad of Genetics

The same argument has been made for another common genetic quirk which you may be more familiar with, sickle-cell disease. The genetic abnormality which causes hemoglobin to be made in a different way provides protection against malaria, a disease which has been so devastating that some medical anthropologists suggest it has killed more human beings in history than all other diseases combined.  Those who have one sickling gene from one parent and a normal gene from the other parent – called sickle-cell trait - have the best of both worlds.  Their hemoglobin is fairly functional because the normal gene from one parent covers up the expression of sickling gene.  The sickling gene however, gives protection against malaria.

Methylation, a Chemical Reaction Critical to Life

We are carbon-based creatures, chock full of carbon containing molecules.  So it should come as little surprise to you that one of the most important chemical reactions in all of life simply sticks one carbon and 3 hydrogens together to  form a methyl group, and that adding that on to molecules (called methylation) to transform them into other molecules is a chemical reaction that is critical to life. Dozens of methylation reactions exist in our bodies, which perform many diverse tasks.  Notable examples are the synthesizing of melatonin to help with sleep, making special lipids (phospholipids) that cell membranes are primarily composed of, slowing down cell division to prevent cancer and causing the main fight/flight neurotransmitter (noradrenalin) to go away so we can relax. 

Generally, those who are genetically less capable of methylation or adding a carbon group on to a molecule to turn it into another molecule, are diagnosed as having “methylation defects,” as if such people are genetic misfits.  In fact, one can make the opposite case.  Methylation “defective” people are often more productive, robust workers, emotionally sensitive and creative, because they are less capable of metabolizing away the primary, fight/flight neurotransmitter, noradrenalin, from their brains. 

Genetics or Personality?

The down side to being an “under-methylator”, as I am, is a tendency to be more compulsive, perfectionistic, anxious, addiction-prone and moody.  In our younger years, when we are more physiologically able to withstand extra fight/flight, sympathetic stress, those of us who are under-methylators can become over-achievers.  We are driven by our genetics  to work harder and make more money.  We can appear to be extroverted movers and groovers, and be attractive as mates, which is why these genes are so common.  We pass them on during our reproductive years to produce under-methylating children.  Later, after midlife and the child-bearing years, the extra sympathetic stress caused by under-methylation tends to take its toll in the form of higher cancer and heart disease rates.

Mindfulness is a separate faculty of consciousness totally distinct from cognition (thinking), emotion (feelings), intuition or sensory awareness (the 5 senses).

Mindfulness is not about Mystical Religions, awareness or meditation, although many religious and spiritual paths make use of mindfulness techniques.  Many therapies and psychotherapies are becoming “mindfulness-based” as it is discovered that all healing methodologies get better results if mindfulness is adjunctively applied. 

Mindfulness techniques are primarily taught to improve emotional stability, to manage stress, to expand ones intelligence, to become more productive and to lead a more joyful and meaningful life.

Scientific studies have proven that mindfulness involves about 1/5^th of the brain, the frontal lobes, as well as other associated structures.  Like other skills, such as intellectual, musical or athletic, which are associated with the development of other brain regions, mindfulness can be practiced and improved over time.  Educational psychologists are studying mindfulness and devising methods to teach children how to practice and develop this skill. Mindfulness training is being introduced into school curricula around the USA. Future generations will someday be trained to use their whole brain and not just 80% of it.