Can Good Nutrition Help Prevent Postpartum Depression? (Part 3: The Gut Microbiome and Inflammation)10/1/2024 If you're just joining us, I highly recommend you start by reading Part 1 and Part 2 before jumping back into this post! If you've followed along with parts 1 and 2, let's recap: so far we've talked about what postpartum depression is, how it is impacted by lifestyle factors (like untreated mental illnesses in pregnancy, physical activity, sleep, social isolation, stress, and skin-to-skin care), how hormonal changes impact mood (including estrogen, progesterone, thyroid, and cortisol, all of which change dramatically during pregnancy and postpartum), and some of the nutritional factors at play (including omega-3s, vitamin D, choline, zinc, iron, and amino acids). Today, we're going to tackle one of the weirdest parts of the story--the gut microbiome--and something that comes up so often these days that you're probably actually sick of talking about it--inflammation. And then, because this is going to be our last post in this series, we'll take a few moments to try to put it all together into a dietary pattern that you can actually follow. (Hint: it's about adding things, NOT about restricting.) The gut microbiome I’ve been nerding out on the gut microbiome for years now, and I’m constantly amazed by how much we’re learning about it and how much we really just don’t know about it. (If anyone tells you that they really understand the gut microbiome, they’re spinning a yarn.) One thing that we do know is that it’s not static. It’s always changing and adjusting. During pregnancy and in the postpartum period, recent research has found some interesting changes which may be linked to postpartum depression. Stress, changes in hormone levels, and changes in diet are just a few of the factors that might lead to changes in the gut microbiome, which in some cases could be substantial enough to create dysbiosis—an imbalance of healthy/harmless and pathogenic gut bugs. Dysbiosis, then, can lead to changes in the way that we process the nutrients we eat.
Inflammation and neuroinflammation (and gestational diabetes) Let’s move on to talk about inflammation. It’s important to note that levels of inflammation fluctuate a LOT during pregnancy and in the early postpartum period. The first and second trimesters are largely anti-inflammatory, but then the third trimester, childbirth and early postpartum are generally pro-inflammatory. While studies aren’t conclusive, there is some early evidence that postpartum depression, like certain forms of major depressive disorder, may be more likely to occur in individuals with higher levels of inflammation postpartum. If that does bear out, it makes a lot of sense that some of those anti-inflammatory nutrients we discussed before (like vitamin D, fish oil, and zinc) would be some of the most helpful nutritional interventions. It also brings the relationship between the gut microbiome and gastrointestinal inflammation into a new light, and sheds some light on the relationship between gestational diabetes and postpartum depression, as well. Having gestational diabetes during pregnancy is linked to an increased risk of postpartum depression. At the same time, having a history of depression makes you more likely to experience gestational diabetes during pregnancy. These two conditions are very interrelated. There are higher levels of inflammatory compounds in the blood of women with gestational diabetes. Plus, the abnormal processing of sugar that occurs in women with gestational diabetes can lead to elevated stress hormone levels and so to mood symptoms. All that on top of the sense of psychological stress that women may feel due to the pressures and challenges of dealing with a disease like gestational diabetes. So if we use what we know about preventing gestational diabetes as a jumping-off point for preventing postpartum depression, how do we prevent and manage gestational diabetes?
Putting the pieces together We’ve covered a lot of ground in this series of articles together, from gut health to inflammation to nutritional adequacy to hormones to lifestyle. So what kind of eating pattern would help us the most with all of these factors we’ve discussed? The list is nothing earth-shattering:
If you’ve learned something from this article series, I’d love to hear about it! If you’d like to learn more about working with me, click here for details and to book a free discovery call, or shoot me an email. Erica Golden, RDN, IFNCPIntegrative and functional registered dietitian nutritionist.
0 Comments
|
AuthorErica Golden, RDN Archives
October 2024
Categories |