Why Depression May Be in Your Bones

What do you imagine when I ask you to think about clinical depression? For example, does your mind conjure up thoughts or images of emotional suffering? Severe sadness? Perhaps even suicidal thoughts and behaviors? If so, all are common and correct responses. Now how about this: during this clinical depression exercise, did you give any thought at all to your skeleton?After reading this blog, you may join the 1 percent of people who do. 

The purpose of this post — drawing on more than 30-years of research — is to level up your mindset about the vastly underappreciated bone-brain relationship. More than knowledge alone, however, you'll also come away with practical insights about the bone-brain connection that will unlock new strategies for optimizing your mental health through daily health choices, such as physical movement, sleep, stress management and nutrition. The goal here is to empower both greater wisdom and higher-quality living choices. 

Your skeleton: perception versus reality

Most people consider their skeleton to be much like the foundation of a home, or even a coat rack in their living room. These are relatable examples of passive support structures enabling certain functions and activities that we value. In the case of the skeleton, anyone who has ever broken a bone or received an osteoporosis diagnosis quickly learns how vital their roughly 206 bones are as a support structure to everyday health and mobility. And even more of us have received counsel from mothers and medical providers to get enough calcium and vitamin D to maintain strong bones. Sadly, that is the knowledge limit many of us obtain from personal experience or traditional education about the human skeleton.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Psychology Today.