In Brief
- Many common sicknesses can affect the mind. Specialists are reviving the decades-old discipline of somatopsychology, which centers on the effects of physical illness on the brain.
- Inflammation, hormone imbalances or nutrient deficiencies can cause depression.
- A simple lack of water or iron can impair your ability to learn, remember and plan.
When I first met Tina, a woman in her late 20s, she had been seeing mental health professionals for virtually her entire life. “One day I’m energetic and creative,” she told me during one of our therapy sessions, “the next I am aimless, or I cry and feel worthless.” Tina had been diagnosed with depression, borderline personality disorder and even schizophrenia. Doctors prescribed antidepressants and later antipsychotics—but the meds only seemed to make her worse. At first I, too, saw her difficulties through the lens of a psychologist, thinking she had bipolar disorder. But later I noticed that her mood swings were accompanied by symptoms such as a racing heart, nausea and joint pain. So I asked her doctors to do a thorough blood workup.
Finally, after her 30th birthday, a doctor discovered the real cause of her suffering: porphyria, a group of rare genetic metabolic disorders. In people with porphyria, precursors of hemoglobin (the molecule that carries oxygen in red blood cells) called porphyrins accumulate in various body systems, causing symptoms from abdominal pain to depression. The female sex hormone progesterone tends to aggravate the condition, so Tina’s moods followed her menstrual cycle. Because the disorder affects the liver, the body has difficulty processing medication, so drugs often create perplexing new symptoms.
This article was originally published with the title Ruled by the Body.
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1 Comments
Add CommentCan't we invent a bracelet that contains essential hormones and enzymes (rechargeable at drugstore at the end of the day), which are known as controlling the moods of people. With this "mood control regulator", we can change our mood throughout the day according to the occasion like dimmers of our light systems in houses. We can feel energetic (instead of cafeine) at work, romantic at dinner (instead of expensive gifts)and passionate (instead of oyster and viagra) at the bed. We should not forget to put an emergency button to calm us when we feel like to kill somebody.
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