Heat an athlete up to minimize inflammation and depression
Blood biomarkers can reveal proinflammatory cytokines, which can lead to constant depression in athletes.
Neuro Athletes!
We've got a great lineup of stories handpicked just for you. This series focuses on depression. Read on to learn about…
The current state of mental health in elite sport
The relationship between inflammation and depression
The effect of heat stress as a potentially therapeutic intervention for major depressive disorder.
DEPRESSION
Yesterday, I sat down with world renown expert and physician, Dr. Charles Raison and spoke about the link between inflammation and depression. It’s safe to say that there is a hidden depression epidemic in the sporting world. Despite the alarmingly large number of athletes acknowledging their depression, a lot remains unknown about the role inflammation plays in its development and progression.
Depression is often characterized by profound sadness, fatigue, altered sleep and appetite, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, and a loss of interest in things that once were enjoyable. The condition is often accompanied by perturbations in metabolic, hormonal, and immune function and inflammatory responses.
Many athletes have recently spoken up about their experience with depression and as I get more personal with my elite athletes, I am beginning to realize that the jet lag, heavy travel schedules, sleep deprivation and poor nutrition all aid in the diagnosis of depression by way of inflammation.
NBA player, Kevin Love, a five-time All Star and member of the gold medal-winning 2012 U.S. Olympic team, suffered his first panic attack at the age of 29 during a game with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Quietly, he started seeing a therapist and wrestling with a fear that he might be perceived as “weak.”
Then, he saw DeMar DeRozan’s Tweet.
Other athletes have struggled with similar thoughts sometimes even leading to suicidal behaviour.
After losing her UFC title, Rounda Rousey admitted to having thoughts of suicide, which had also taken the lives of her father and grandfather.
At age 43, Junior Seau took his life on May 2, 2012, by shooting himself in the chest.
Rick Rypien struggled with clinical depression for much of his life. He passed on August 15, 2011, by his own hand.
Los Angeles Clippers forward Paul George said
"I underestimated mental health. I had anxiety. A little bit of depression. Us being locked in here, I just wasn’t there. I just checked out."
INFLAMMATION & DEPRESSION
Dr. Raison, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has found that inflammatory mediators such as, IL-6 and C-Reactive protein (CRP) are higher in depressed individuals and that chronic inflammation might not only be predictive but also induce depression.
In order to ensure tissue integrity and function, cells cope with cellular injuries by adapting their metabolism, protecting essential intracellular constituents, inhibiting cell death signaling pathways and activating those devoted to damage repair.
When cells are repeatedly exposed to environmental or endogenous stresses (e.g., in-flight air, sleep deprivation, nutrition and alcohol) that can alter normal cell behavior, they become prone to error and consequently, dysfunction. A series of dysfunctional tissues and organs can exacerbate the overall physical condition of an athlete, making him or her more vulnerable to depression.
Recent studies have shown increased environments and endogenous stressors “slow down the rate of strength recovery from strength training workouts” and inhibit short-term muscular recovery from resistance exercise.
To put simply, we have the ability to get a simple blood test that can measure our C-reactive protein which increases when there's inflammation in your body. Doing this may help in mitigating the progression of depression.
Since these stressors are inevitable in the elite sporting climate, how can an athlete and coach mitigate them and downregulate the harmful inflammatory mediators that lead to depression?
“Imagine you had a bad day and then you had thousands of fans telling you you’re terrible…There is a massive stress in the game when you have to constantly be your best.” – West Ham United footballer, Michail Antonio.
SAUNA
After reading through the data I am blown away by the growing body of evidence that shows how heat shock proteins produced by whole-body hyerthermia can mimic SSRI drugs such as prozak. It turns out that certain drugs used in the treatment of depression raise neural temperatures; drugs such as some antidepressants, psychotropic medications, LSD, and MDMA.
Hyperthermia entails gradually heating the whole body up to 101.3 F and then letting it cool down, which takes about an hour. This is essentially what happens when people do hot yoga, take long hot baths, and — most relevant to their discussion — visit saunas.
Captivating data suggest that whole-body hyperthermia may be useful in treating depression.¹ In particular, in a randomized, double-blind study of 30 healthy adults diagnosed with depression, participants who were exposed to a single session of whole-body hyperthermia in which core body temperature was elevated to 38.5°C (101.3°F) experienced an acute antidepressant effect that was apparent within one week of treatment and persisted for six weeks after treatment.
According to Raison and his hyperthermia research, getting hot also potentially eases depression because short “hits” of stress- also called "hyperthermic conditioning"- may cause adaptations that increase athletic endurance (by increasing plasma volume and blood flow to heart and muscles) and potentially even cognitive function.
These short bursts of heat stress seem to make the brain better equipped to deal with other kinds of stress/inflammation. Heat Shock proteins as their name implies, are induced by heat and this robust induction heat exposure is a prime example how of heat shock proteins are able to repair damaged proteins and prevent protein oxidation by scavenging free radicals and by increasing endogenous antioxidants in our body and this is how they are able to cause a net increase in protein synthesis.
You can listen to the full episode here to find out why “whole-body hyperthermia holds promise as a safe, rapid-acting antidepressant” with a “prolonged therapeutic benefit.”
WHAT TO READ
I have gathered some peer reviewed articles from PubMed for you to read on the effects of inflammation and depression:
“Data show that groups of depressed individuals demonstrate elevated levels of multiple inflammatory biomarkers because there are more individuals with these elevations within depressed populations than comparison groups”
“Whole-body hyperthermia holds promise as a safe, rapid-acting, antidepressant modality with a prolonged therapeutic benefit”
“Players who report teammates as a source of stress have a greater risk of sustaining an acute injury, while players reporting the coach as a source of stress are at greater risk of sustaining an overuse injury”.
JOB OPENINGS
EXCITING NEWS!!!!!
Neuro Athletics has just released its first ever job board to help sports specific organisations find the best talent. Below are some job openings posted within the last week:
The Los Angeles Football Club is looking to hire an Academy Administrator (link)
Creative Artists Agency is looking to hire an Assistant, Media Finance (link)
Search more job here and feel free to post any if you want to hire the best talent who combine their love for sport and business.
Fascinating read! Thank you for putting it together.
The bit on saunas in particular - maybe the Nordic folks know what’s up!