126 Homocysteine – The Depression Imperative – Farah

Homocysteine & The Depression ImperativeThere is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.~ Ernest Hemingway

Dr. Andrew Farah is a forensic psychiatrist, a psychopharmacologist, the author of a remarkable new book, Hemingway's Brain, - and an all-around deeply interesting guy on many levels. In this interview, our second after our first delightful Hemingway's Brain CBJ/114 discussion, is again most entertaining, and prescient regarding the brain awareness changes today taking place in both our society and our neuroscience community. Here Dr. Farah dives from the commanding precipice of brain injury, art, and history into the deep caverns of neuroscience: brain molecular physiology.

This Depression Imperative encourages more precise thinking with more predictable outcomes for treatment failure on many levels. Here we start with depression.

Brief Bio

Dr. Farah is a native of Charleston SC and now serves as Chief of Psychiatry at the High Point Division of UNC Healthcare. This report addresses fresh details regarding the homocysteine theory of depression [1], and the use of reduced B vitamins for depression and neuroprotection, particularly the prevention of dementias. Yes, he's a neuroscience expert as well.

The standard of care for depression in those distant Hemingway years dramatically differs from today. Today we know more about multiple causes of depression and, as Dr. Farah so articulately reports, the biology of brain deterioration for a complexity of biologically relevant nutritional contributions that mushroom into depression over time. Homocysteine presents a fresh marker, a depression imperative for all of us working with mind science.

Farah's 2 CBJ Episodes: A Mix of History, Art, Metaphor, and Reality

Dr. Farah's depression imperative lessons go beyond just memorable - to transcendent. Mark down this interview as also unforgettable. - Thanks, Andy. And, if this is your first meeting with Dr. Farah, fasten your seatbelts for a curious journey with a commonplace blood test with standard, insurance supported, testing protocols.

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Dr. Farah Reports On The Homocysteine Depression ImperativeMy curiosity started in residency around the subject of Treatment Failure [spp-timestamp time="4:17"]Our depression treatment protocols haven't changed since 1957 [spp-timestamp time="5:05"]Why consider homocysteine in the first place [spp-timestamp time="7:50"]What happens when we lower homocysteine [spp-timestamp time="11:13"]The Prozac paradox and the alpha-2 receptor [spp-timestamp time="13:30"]What happens to the building blocks for monoamines [spp-timestamp time="15:50"]Reduced B Vitamins and the specific pathways [spp-timestamp time="18:53"]The specific nutrient supplements involved [spp-timestamp time="23:30"]Why 5-MTHF didn't work so well [spp-timestamp time="23:54"]The problem with Lamictal for Bipolar II [spp-timestamp time="30:15"]My thoughts on homocysteine measurement/values [spp-timestamp time="35:01"]Why brain cells die in the first place [spp-timestamp time="41:12"]Closing on the epigenetic contributions as well [spp-timestamp time="50:38"]

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