Looking At and Treating Depression Differently

Scott: So, at Neuroscience, you talk about neurotransmitters. What sort of conditions are we talking about? Is this brain health? Is it depression issues? What sort of things do you guys focus on? 

DR. BRADLEY BUSH: Well, at Neuroscience, one of our key beliefs is that the nervous system runs the show. And it's very important because at the end of the day, your body could sort of survive on its own in many different facets, but without the nervous system actually running it, it doesn't exist at all. 

So, when you look at what conditions could actually be helped, at our company, our number one condition that we actually address with patients is depression. Number two is insomnia and then fatigue, attention deficit disorders. 

Scott: Can you talk about depression a little bit? That's one of the primary areas of focus. What is that and what are we learning about what's actually going on that causes that?

DR. BRADLEY BUSH: Oh, sure. You know, depression is a multifaceted condition, and for the longest time we were a Prozac nation. Everyone thought that an SSRIs going to cure everyone's depression. Well, over the years many advances have happened in research to identify that there is a multitude of different causes for depression. Now, when it comes to something like using an SSRI, something like a Prozac, that most consumers are familiar with, they know that that helps boost serotonin, which makes you happier. It helps fight off that mood. Well, that is a neurotransmitter. It's a very common and very important neurotransmitter, but it's one of many neurotransmitters. At Neuroscience, we measure 13 neurotransmitters, so you can see, once you actually start peeling the onion there's many other layers to look at. 

And so, there's many more interventions for all different forms of depressions or other conditions that may lead, and different imbalances, that may lead to what then ends up being a symptom like depression. Likewise, one of the things about Neuroscience is that we started off looking primarily at the nervous system through neurotransmitters, and then we added in hormone testing to look at a little bit more of the endocrine system and the neuroendocrine approach to health. But, in the last five years, we've expanded our profiles and our knowledge to include the immune system, because many patients, they would have these imbalances. And no matter what therapy you put forward to them, they still would have issues. Insomnia that would not be cured, major depression that couldn't be cured, anxiety that was resistant to anything. And then that led us to wonder, "Well, what else is driving the nervous system?"

And of course, the last decade, the knowledge of the neuroimmunology has been growing evermore. And now it's well established that the immune system is actually a causative agent to depression and many other psychiatric illnesses, to the point where the psychiatrists now have to go back to school quite a bit to learn about inflammation. Because inflammation has now been acknowledged as a major cause for depression. So, and of course, chronic inflammation is not an easy thing to identify in communication or at an intake. It's something you have to test for and to identify, and then treat, with not just psychiatric interventions, but with lifestyle changes, nutritional health, etc. 

Scott: Talk about how important that information is when you consider how many of these drugs are prescribed. I mean, it's a big business. And how dangerous some of them can be if we learn to, maybe, look at this a different way. 

DR. BRADLEY BUSH: Absolutely. Well, you know, at the end of the day, our personal belief is there's no such thing as a bad drug. Now, there's bad applications for drugs or there's misuse of them, or there's the inability to see beyond just a protocol use of drugs and not look at the big picture. So, just put that aside. But, when you look at someone with major different health issues, a medication could be prescribed to help them out. And that's usually a short-term way to address a symptom. Most pharmaceutical medications that are on the market are approved for short-term use, one week, two weeks. And then they get on the market and then they're used for one year, two year, one decade, two decades.

And what is important to know is, one, there's very little research proving their safety and effectiveness long-term. And two, what's very important, at least in the natural health industry is, when you're on a medication, you're taking a synthetic substance. That has to be processed in your liver. And when it does that, these certain medications have sometimes powerful effects in your cytochrome p450 system in your liver. Some of them inhibit your ability to break down certain chemicals. Some of them accelerate it. And all of them challenge certain enzyme pathways. Making it so that even you're put on a medication that everyone's put on. Millions of people are on this med. Oh, very few side effects. But that med, no matter what side effects it may not be causing you, is always causing a challenge to your body's ability to rid itself of toxins and to help keep your normal metabolites and health optimal. 

And of course, when you're living in a culture where the protocols for different conditions have medication on top of medication on top of medication, then you have medications to handle the side effects of the medications. And it's not uncommon now to have someone who's in their 60s on seven to nine medications. All of those, taxing the liver and the body's ability to be healthy, causing a rapid aging of that person on a biochemical and biological level.