Antidepressants

It is now known 25% of the people that take an antidepressant will have weight gain. (2)  The weight gain may be gradual over the course of months or the weight gain may be sudden and dramatic. Currently, there is no way to predict who will be affected, but the cause of the antidepressant induced weight gain is known.

The Cause of Antidepressant Weight Gain

The cause of antidepressant induced weight gain is on the technical side, but an attempt will be made here to remove as much of the medical terms as possible. If you are a healthcare provider and you would like to review the entire study, the title will be found at the bottom of this page.

Insulin resistance is a common condition when antidepressants are used and this makes cells in the body fail to respond to ordinary levels of insulin. (3)  Individuals that are insulin resistant are predisposed to develop type 2 diabetes. (4)

Within each human cell, substances will send a signal to other substances, some substances might block other substances from entering the cell or some signals may instruct the cell to receive toxins. This can virtually flood a cell with unwanted substances.

Within each human cell you will find a gene called JNK. A gene is used by the body to shut off or turn on activity. This is much like a common light switch. Some of us will have the light switch on and some of us will have the same light switch in the off position. The JNK gene can be turned on or off by toxins, certain foods, stress, as well as environmental factors.

The JNK gene is a regulator of insulin sensitivity. For a better understanding of this, click here and a new browser window will open. You will see a round picture of the inside of a cell. Near the bottom of the picture you will see a brown circle, this is the nucleus of the cell. The nucleus is being referred to as the "control center" of the cell. Look just above the round brown circle, in the middle of the picture, and locate the yellow small circle labeled JNKs.

You will see how all of the lines coming down from the cell wall must first pass through the JNKs. From the yellow JNKs circle, follow the red line that goes to the left and you will see an orange figure labeled IRS 1. The IRS 1 is a protein. This is the insulin resistant starting point and the point of origination for diabetes.

The normal state or most advantageous condition for the JNKs is to restrict substances from entering the nucleus that are harmful. If the JNKs were the light switch, the switch would be nearly off all of the time. Antidepressants turn the switch on and this is where the problem begins. You can also turn on the JNK switch by consuming food preservatives, most junk food, and other factors. You can also turn off the JNK switch by eating certain foods and by taking certain vitamin supplements.

When an antidepressant is being used or was used in the past, changing the diet will not be enough to counter the effect. If a large house was engulfed in flames, a garden hose will not put the fire out. This is the same concept when an antidepressant is used. The antidepressant is the huge flame and the garden hose would be eating green veggies. By the time the fire is out the entire house would have burned to the ground. Frankly, if a person lives to be one hundred years old, the diet change would never have enough time to change the JNK activity and weight loss would never happen. Specific supplement blends are needed so you have have several firemen with fire hoses and water dropping helicopters extinguishing the flames in short order. Once the fire is down to the point where a garden hose will handle it, diet alone will and can make the final difference.

As well, the things that are making the fire rage should be discontinued. If you are still taking an antidepressant and you and your physician prefer you to stay on an antidepressant, you need to at the very least do the things that will keep the fire at a controlled burn. Change your diet and take supplements that will help keep the JNKs inhibited.

Stop the over activation of the JNK gene and obesity will not exist.

Stop the over activation of the JNK gene and most or all side effects associated with antidepressant usage will not exist.

Stop the over activation of the JNK gene and anxiety goes away.

Stop the over activation of the JNK gene and a normal sleep cycle begins again.

Click the other links on left side of this page and you can read what foods to eat, what foods to avoid and more.

Losing weight can be as easy as stopping the over activation of the JNK gene.

The antidepressants will vary slightly with how they alter the IRS 1, but the end result will always be the same.

An interesting thing will also be found with insulin resistance and antidepressants. If you are tested for insulin resistance, you may get a false positive, a false negative or the actual results. It appears with the IRS 1 being altered along with the JNK being altered, the signaling is confused.

The supplements that need to be used to stop the over activation of the JNK gene can be found by clicking here. The JNK Diet does not sell supplements.

References:

1. Antidepressant induce cellular insulin resistance by activation of IRS-1 kinases (Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience)

2. Fava et al, 2000; Himmerich et al, 2004; Raeder et al., 2006

3. Kahn and Flier, 2000

4. Reaven 2005