Anxiety and Depression: The Insulin Resistance Link

Diet, Insulin Resistance and Mood

June 16, 2019

Anxiety and depression improve when insulin resistance is treated in patients whose mood symptoms share a metabolic driver. A diet high in sugar and fat causes inflammation. That inflammation reaches the brain. There it dulls the dopamine system, which runs drive and motivation.

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Can anxiety and depression get better, almost by surprise, when insulin resistance is treated? We ask for a reason. More than 90% of the patients seen in this city interventional pain practice have metabolic dysfunction (a body that handles fuel badly). Their mood symptoms move when their metabolism does.

Can diet affect your mood and memory?

Researchers have studied again and again how much diet affects the brain. A diet high in sugar and fat has measurable effects on memory and mood. How it happens is no mystery. Inflammation signals reach the brain. Glucose supply to the brain gets thrown off. Gut bacteria change the brain-active chemicals they make. And the dopamine system that runs motivation takes a hit.

How does inflammation affect dopamine and motivation?

Chronic inflammation directly hits the dopamine system that drives motivation. That helps explain why drive drops in metainflammation (body-wide inflammation fed by metabolism). It also helps explain anhedonia (loss of pleasure). Anhedonia so often comes with diabetes and chronic pain. A patient called unmotivated may be describing a chemical state in the brain. It may not be a flaw in character at all.

How are chronic pain, anxiety and depression connected?

Anxiety and depression are routinely treated as side problems of chronic pain — the expected result of living with it. That view is incomplete. When all three share an inflammatory and metabolic driver, treating the metabolism can improve all three. Treating each one separately can improve none of them for long.

Does this mean anxiety and depression are metabolic conditions?

This does not mean anxiety and depression are metabolic conditions. It does not mean psychiatric care is unnecessary. It means the metabolic piece is worth measuring in anyone whose mood symptoms sit alongside pain and metabolic dysfunction. Why measure it? Because it is treatable, and it is routinely missed.

Frequently asked questions

Can insulin resistance make you feel depressed?

It can. A diet high in sugar and fat causes inflammation that reaches the brain. That inflammation dulls the dopamine system that drives motivation. This helps explain the low drive and the loss of pleasure, called anhedonia. Both are so often seen with diabetes and chronic pain. A patient labeled unmotivated may be describing a chemical state in the brain, not a flaw in character.

Can diabetes cause depression and anxiety?

Diabetes, chronic pain and mood symptoms often travel together. That is because they can share the same inflammatory and metabolic driver. More than 90% of the patients seen in this city pain practice have metabolic dysfunction. Their mood symptoms move when their metabolism does. That shared driver is why anhedonia so often comes with diabetes and chronic pain.

Does treating insulin resistance help anxiety and depression?

In patients whose mood symptoms share a metabolic driver, anxiety and depression improve when insulin resistance is treated. When pain, anxiety and depression share that driver, treating the metabolism can improve all three. Treating each one separately can improve none of them for long. That is why the metabolic side is worth measuring.

Does this mean I can stop psychiatric treatment?

No. Anxiety and depression are not simply metabolic conditions, and psychiatric treatment still matters. The point is narrower. In anyone whose mood symptoms sit alongside pain and metabolic dysfunction, the metabolic piece is worth measuring. That is because it is treatable, and it is routinely missed. Measuring it adds to your care. It does not replace any part of it.