Hello, everyone.
It's nice to be back with you again today with another biblical
prescription for a life.
I just hope you're having a great day.
Today, we're going to talk a little bit about what causes depression.
And is serotonin the answer?
So many people now since the pandemic have been depressed.
Suicide levels are going up.
Depression is higher.
Mental health has been worse than ever.
And in fact, over the last 20 years,
mental health problems have increased dramatically.
And our solutions don't seem to be working.
So I want to talk to you a little bit about that today.
But before that, I want to share a biblical prescription,
something from the word of God that we know is true
and something that we can depend on as our authority.
And that's from the first Thessalonians
Chapter five verses 16 through 18.
And these verses say, Rejoice always.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything.
Give thanks.
Four.
This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
So we want you to focus on that text from First Thessalonians today
and let's start our time together in a prayer of Thanksgiving.
Father got through your son. Jesus.
We want to say thank you for being here with us and giving us
biblical prescriptions to lead to our ultimate healing.
Please be with us today as we talk about depression.
And a recent study is our prayer.
Amen.
Well, as I said recently, I've just seen depression,
stress levels keep going up.
And a recent study that I came across with I think is very helpful.
I think we should pay attention to this.
And I think this should bring more attention
to depression, suicide,
what's being done, what needs to be done, and how we can help each other.
And this
is written from the molecular psychiatry.
It was published July 20, 2022, just off the press.
And this was written by Dr.
Moncrieff.
And basically their hypotheses were this.
The serotonin hypothesis.
The Depression is still influential, and what they tried to do
was synthesize and invalidate evidence on whether depression
is associated with lower serotonin concentration or activity.
In a systematic umbrella review of basically all the relevant
areas of research.
What's been said for a long time is low serotonin levels cause depression.
So if we can increase serotonin levels, depression will go away.
They also looked at the serotonin metabolites in the body
and they also looked at the precursor of the tryptophan levels.
And they did a systemic review of all of this because so many people
now are taking antidepressants to raise serotonin.
And unfortunately, all of these have side effects
of some of the side effects that can make the matter worse.
So lots of side effects with these medicines to raise serotonin.
It literally changes the physiology, the interactions of the brain.
And there's lots of brain chemistry and physiology
that we really don't understand.
But this theory that's been there for years, that if we can increase
serotonin, we can help with this symptoms of depression.
So they looked at it under the discussion section.
And if you want to read the article, it's there.
It's a beautiful article, Molecular Psychiatry
published in 2022.
But their bottom line was this
Their comprehensive review of the major
strands of research on serotonin
shows that there's no convincing evidence
that depression is associated with or caused by lower
serotonin concentrations or activities.
So that is important
because the general public widely believes that these antidepressants
that raise serotonin is the answer to this.
And they've been told that
serotonin deficiencies
and chemical imbalances in the brain are the cause of depression.
So they looked at these 17 studies and they couldn't find any evidence
that low serotonin is associated with depression.
Well, I'm not saying that this is not a chemical abnormality in the brain,
but so far it looks like there's not evidence showing
that all these medicines that we use to raise serotonin
specifically is helping depression a great deal on these studies.
So it's really not raising the serotonin.
That's the key.
There must be something more complicated involved in depression.
Maybe it's multiple chemical problems in the brain is multiple physiologies.
Maybe it's things going on that we can't understand.
Maybe we need to evaluate whether this is the answer,
because if we look over
the recent period of time, more and more people are having depression.
More and more people are having anxiety.
More suicides.
And over the last 20 years, since we've treated depression
aggressively with pills and different treatments, our levels keep going up.
So maybe we need to look for something more.
Well, I've been convinced that, you know, we have a great deal of medicines
out there.
Some are beneficial.
Some have side effects.
Some are worth the side effects.
In fact, several years ago, I wrote this book.
Medicines that Kill People really gave me a hard time that says I said
that medicines were one of the leading causes of death in America, in the world.
And about that time, they came out with all of the data on pain pills,
and we looked at all
the different medications that have been pulled off the market.
I can remember
they call was pulled off the market right away after increased deaths.
Another medications we use for weight loss.
Thin, thin was pulled off the market as well because of valvular heart disease.
Well, we pulled off many things once we found out
how dangerous it is when we put these things in our body.
And yet today,
I see all around us side effects of different things
people are putting into their body.
And it's not being pulled off the market and it's being promoted.
Well, we look at all the antidepressants out there now,
and now we have some evidence, pretty strong studies.
That was written in molecular psychiatry, which said
the serotonin and therapy theory of depression.
It really doesn't have any evidence that raising the serotonin levels helps.
So we have all of these medicines that we might be having
all the side effects from and not a discrete benefit.
Well, a few years ago, another great book I read that looked at all
this was written by Robert Whittaker,
and it was called An Anatomy of an Epidemic.
And if you really want to look into how some of these medications
and treatments for depression, anxiety and our mental health problems
were developed, this book might open your eyes .
So there's some evidence that what we're doing out
there is not working and we keep doing it.
That might be the definition of insanity itself.
Why do we do things over and over that we don't have any proof
that it works and in fact, we have proof that it harms?
And it's not only happening in the world of depression, it's happening
all over our world.
Just look at the world we live in.
It doesn't make sense if things aren't getting better.
We need to relook at things.
And that's why I wanted to share with you that today for you to think about.
But I want to give you some specific things
that we can do that might help our mental health,
that might help you today, whether you're suffering.
And some people really do benefit from
modern medicine and modern chemicals and modern treatments.
But I think that that number is probably not
what is predicted by this study.
So one of the things I would encourage everyone to do
is go to the Bible and pray.
Be involved in community.
Community
definitely helps.
We talk about what's going in our life.
We've found out that especially for mild depression,
movement and exercise helps a lot.
I think being outside helps tremendously.
Great nutrition where we get all of the things we need and we get rid
of all the things we don't need, which may be affecting our brain.
And in this text here in first Thessalonians five, rejoice.
That helps.
Pray. That helps.
And in everything, give thanks.
Even our trials.
It's hard to be negative when we have a thankful heart.
And all of these things help lower all the stress.
Remember our brain?
Was it designed chemically to be a body?
With all the negativity in life, lack of sleep,
all the chemicals, all the stuff going on changes
the physiology of our insides at multiple levels.
Maybe it's just not one chemical, but maybe it's multiple levels.
So getting back to the way God made us.
Listening to this biblical prescription might be a great start.
So I wanted to give you that to think about and ponder today.
Let's lower our stress levels.
Let's get back to moving.
Let's improve our nutrition.
But most importantly, let's remember this biblical prescription
from first Thessalonians five.
Rejoice, always.
Pray without ceasing.
Have God close your heart so we can pray.
And in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus for you.
I think that's a great place to start, and I hope this opened your eyes
a little bit to the problem that we have with depression, anxiety,
the fact that it's not getting better
and if anything, that's not getting better over time
with our current modes of treatment, we have to question this.
So if you like this, give it a thumbs up.
Share this with your friends and neighbors.
We have lots of resources, including a Bible app you can sign up for.
We have a newsletter.
We have lots of ways to get involved with our ministry,
heart wise ministry, which sponsors biblical prescriptions for life.
Well, I hope to get back very soon with you.
And please send in your questions and concerns,
because we're going to address those soon on our Frequently Asked Questions video.
You know, it's sometimes challenging to come up with relevant
topics, but, you know, God keeps dropping things in our laps here.
From Molecular Psychiatry, July 20, 22.
I don't think we're going to hear a lot of this in the modern media
because it's just not popular.
It's just not a moneymaker to say what's going on in the truth,
especially in regards to this serotonin theory that might have been debunked.
I think depression, anxiety is much more complicated than one chemical.
It involves lots of chemicals, lots of interactions,
stresses on the brain's environmental factors, genetic factors.
And we're just beginning to understand it a little more.
And I want to suggest now that a great place to start in helping you
to learn more about every aspect of your health
is going to the Bible, going to God, the real healer eventually.
So thanks for joining me and I hope to be back very, very soon
with another biblical prescription.
For life.