New research is being published every day about the serious health issues caused by obesity. Over two thirds (67%) of Americans are overweight and almost 40% of our children are obease. Type 2 Diabetes has become an epidemic amoung children and adults. Poor diets play a major role in all of this. However, we are now finding that depression, stress, and poor diet are also linked to inflammation which is involved in most illnesses and disease as well as a major risk factor in most deaths.
One of my favorite researchers, Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD, from Ohio State University, recently published one such paper in the Psychosomatic Medicine Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine.
In her article, “Stress, food, and Inflammation: psychoneuroimmunology and nutrition at the cutting edge,” Dr. Kiecolt-Glaser proposes that inflammation is directly affected by our behavior, such as eating habits, emotions, and stress.
Our lifestyle choices can create direct routes to conditions like inflammation. Even more recently, information linking psychoneuroimmunology and depression with stress and obesity has surfaced.
It has always been evident that our stress levels could be connected with our food intake, now there are mechanistic and behavior studies that link dietary factors to inflammation. As you know, inflammation is frequently implicated as a risk factor in many of the leading causes of death.
Recognizing that depression, stress, and a poor diet can cause or enhance inflammation should be important to all practitioners – especially psychotherapists. Psychoneuroimmunology is pivotal in this.
