Introduction
Vitamins are essential for many bodily functions. A vitamin deficiency can cause severe deficiencies that can manifest themselves in various organ systems. The eyes, the skin or the nervous system can be affected.
Depression is a very common disease, which is still the subject of numerous scientific studies. Especially the causes of depression are the subject of much research. In contrast, many advances have been made in recent decades with regard to the treatment of depression.
What influence does a vitamin deficiency have on depression?
Vitamins are compounds that the body needs for survival, but which it cannot produce itself. The human body is therefore dependent on a supply of these vitamins from outside. If there is either an insufficient intake through food or an increased need, for example during pregnancy and lactation, a vitamin deficiency can occur.
It is not possible to give a blanket answer about the influence of a vitamin deficiency on depression. But why is it then sometimes assumed that vitamin deficiency conditions can lead to illnesses such as depression? This is because vitamins are needed by the body for a variety of vital metabolic processes.
A deficiency therefore means that the body can no longer perform certain tasks adequately because the vitamins that are essential for these tasks are missing. Since there are many different vitamins, the first question is which vitamins can influence mental illnesses such as depression and which cannot. However, there are two vitamins for which there is a particular debate about whether there is a connection.
These two vitamins are: This will be discussed in more detail in the following sections. Although vitamins have an important function for the human body, it must be said that according to the current state of research, there is no sure connection between vitamin deficiency and depression.
- Vitamin D
- And vitamin B 12 (cobalamin).
Influence of vitamin D in depression
Vitamin D and winter depression are two things that can influence each other. A winter depression develops – as the name already says – especially during the winter months. It is also called seasonal depression.
Its increased occurrence in the winter months is related to the much less available daylight in winter. Some people react very strongly to this lack of light and can develop depression. This depression shows similar symptoms to non-seasonal depression: In contrast to non-seasonal depression, those affected often complain of an increase in appetite with attacks of ravenous appetite and weight gain.
- Listlessness,
- Depressed mood,
- Lack of interest
- And joylessness.
Vitamin D is one of the few vitamins that can be produced by the body itself. But what the body needs in order to synthesize vitamin D is sunlight. A lack of sunlight can lead to a vitamin D deficiency.
Especially elderly people who do not regularly go out into the fresh air and sunlight are more likely to suffer from such a deficiency. The most important symptoms of a vitamin D deficiency are But what is the connection between vitamin D and depression? Actually only one, namely the common ground that both a Vitamin D deficiency and a seasonal depression are caused by a lack of daylight.
There are already some studies those investigate whether the regular income of Vitamin D leads with patients at a depression suffer from to an improvement of the symptomatology. So far, however, no clear results have been found. In this respect, there are still no recommendations regarding the use of vitamin D3 preparations for depression.
However, the ever-increasing research will certainly provide answers in the coming years. Generally in the winter months a Vitamin D income is to be recommended particularly to older humans. This should be however always co-ordinated with the family doctor.
- Increased bone fragility Vitamin D plays an important role in bone metabolism. A lack of vitamin D can therefore lead to osteoporosis and brittle bones with spontaneous fractures (the bone breaks without adequate trauma).
- Rickets In children, a lack of vitamin D3 can lead to rickets, a disease in which the bones become severely deformed.
In general, healthy people who follow a normal daily routine and are sufficiently exposed to fresh air do not need to take vitamin D as capsules or tablets. Exceptions to this rule are babies and many elderly people.
Vitamin D occurs in rather rarely consumed food such as cod liver oil in larger quantities. But vitamin D is also found in eggs as well as milk and dairy products. But since vitamin D can be produced by the body itself, provided that enough sunlight is available, intake with food is of secondary importance.
The daily need at Vitamin D amounts to approximately 20 μg. With older humans the recommended dose for taking Vitamin D preparations daily between 800 and 2000 IU as capsule tablet amounts to. In addition, older people should also take calcium if the daily recommended intake cannot be achieved.
Vitamin B 12 is also called cobalamin. It occurs mainly in animal products such as meat, fish, milk and eggs. Since the human liver can store vitamin B 12 over a long period of time, a deficiency is often only noticed after a long period of time.
Vegans and vegetarians are most susceptible to vitamin B 12 deficiency. But older people also have a vitamin B12 deficiency more often because absorption into the bloodstream no longer functions as well. Also certain medicines can lead to the fact that less Vitamin B 12 is taken up by the body.
The level of vitamin B 12 can be determined in the blood and thus find out whether a deficiency exists or not. As with Vitamin D, there is no reliable uniform opinion regarding the connection between a Vitamin B 12 deficiency and depression. However, some (few) studies provide evidence that a vitamin B 12 deficiency is detectable more often in patients with depression than in the healthy population.
In addition a study showed that with patients only badly on a medicamentous therapy with antidepressants responded, a substitution with Vitamin B 12 led to better results of the antidepressive therapy already after short time. Since these studies, however, considered only very few patients, no generally valid statement can be drawn from this. There are therefore no recommendations for the use of vitamin B 12 preparations during a depressive episode.
However, it can do no harm to have the level of vitamin B 12 determined when depression is diagnosed. If there is a deficiency, substitution therapy should be initiated. The daily recommended intake of vitamin B 12 is 3 μg.
Pregnant women have an increased need and should take therefore daily 3.5-4 μg to itself. In the capsule preparations, which are to be purchased prescription-free in pharmacy or drugstore, doses between 10 and 1000 μg are contained, thus clearly higher doses. It is so far however not well-known that an overdose brings side effects with itself.
Apart from the tablets, vitamin B-12 can also be administered parenterally (i.e. via a vein) or intramuscularly (as with a vaccination). These injections are usually administered by the family doctor. If it is a question of substituting vitamin B-12, it is theoretically also possible to take a vitamin B complex.
For most vitamins, however, it is not necessary to substitute them, so it makes more sense to buy a preparation that specifically replaces a vitamin (for example, vitamin B 12). Of course, this only applies if there are no other vitamin deficiencies. Nevertheless, most drugstores sell numerous (mostly unnecessary) vitamin complex preparations.
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