Hormones and Depression: A Functional Approach

If you deal with depression, you're probably familiar with serotonin--the all-important mood-stabilizing neurotransmitter. Many antidepressant medications target it, and individuals with depressive disorders often seem to have lower levels. Serotonin is incredibly important.

But depression isn't just about serotonin. It's not just about neurotransmitters at all. Today, I want to talk a little bit about the role of hormones and how your hormone balance (or imbalance) can play a role in mood and depression.

Stress hormones
The stress hormones include epinephrine (AKA adrenaline), norepinephrine (AKA noradrenaline), and cortisol. All three of these hormones are present in low, stable levels in your body all the time to do things like keep you awake when you're supposed to be awake and keep your blood pressure from bottoming out. When you're stressed, if things are functioning as they should be, levels ramp up, and then ease back down when the stressor is gone. 

But we see problems with mood and depression whether levels of these stress hormones are high or low. Often, it's a problem of balance--levels of cortisol being chronically high instead of coming down after the stress passes, or levels being chronically low because of long-term traumatic stress exposure. 

Sex hormones
Testosterone in men and estrogen in women play significant roles in stabilizing serotonin levels. When estrogen levels fluctuate during the menstrual cycle, menopause, or around pregnancy and childbirth, serotonin levels can go wonky, too. Testosterone seems to play a similar role in men of regulating serotonin levels.

Thyroid hormones
The thyroid gland is one of the first places to look when depression is present--not because it's always the trigger, but because when it is, it's vital to treat. Plus, it's a simple blood test that can be ordered by just about any primary care provider or functional dietitian. 

When the thyroid gland isn't functioning optimally and becomes underactive (AKA hypothyroidism), fatigue, lethargy, and depression are some of the primary symptoms. Individuals with hyperactive thyroid (AKA hyperthyroidism) can also see some major mood impacts, as well, including anxiety, insomnia, irritability, and sometimes depression, as well.

Sleep hormone
The major hormone involved in sleep, melatonin, is one that many of us know well. But did you know that it is also implicated in depression? Melatonin levels tend to be imbalanced in many people with depression, and with the prevalence of sleep disturbances in depression, this makes perfect sense. Many factors can lead to a melatonin dysfunction, but getting back into alignment with your circadian rhythm is a vital piece of restoring proper melatonin balance.

Hormone health
All of these hormones are vital in mental health, and all of them are impacted by how well you nourish your body and the self-care habits you put in place. This means that over time, making small changes like practicing better sleep hygiene, learning specific, practical tools to manage stress levels and complete the stress cycle, moving your body gently (not excessively), eating more nourishing, colorful plant foods, repairing protein, and omega-3 fatty acids, and replenishing any nutrient deficiencies can help to improve hormone health.

Hormones can be slow to change, and certainly other co-existing diseases and genetic factors can get in the way. But in general, even though these are things happening deep inside your body and outside of your direct control, there are ways that you can have a real impact on your hormone health through your nutrition and lifestyle.

Want to learn more about hormone health and depression? Check out my brand-new course Nourish Your Mind depression course for a super-deep dive into this and many other related topics relevant to living life with depression.

If you want to walk through personalized nutritional strategies for mental health with me, I'm currently accepting new patients. You can send me a message or schedule a discovery call with me to learn more.