This is a YouTube video titled "The #1 Thing Driving Healthcare Cost" containing a recorded conversation from August 6, 2020, featuring Ask AI Mark and another speaker discussing the mental health crisis in America. They focus on the challenges of treating depression, the limitations of antidepressant medications, and the potential benefits of alternative strategies such as diet, mindfulness, and lifestyle changes to improve mental health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
We are seeing a mental health crisis in America. You know, I recently wrote a book called Food Fix and then I was shocked to discover that the biggest driver of costs in our healthcare system and in our society, when you look at both the direct and indirect costs, is not being overweight or diabetes, it's actually depression. It's mental health issues are the biggest driver of years of quality of life loss.
Yes, and disability.
Absolutely. Disability. And it's like, well, wait a minute. This is a, this is a pandemic also, but we're really not talking about how to address it. And we think, oh, well, we'll take antidepressants. But talk to us about how that approach has really not lived up to its promise. In severe depression, it can be helpful for select patients, but for the most people who have it, it doesn't seem to be that effective. So can you talk about what the challenges are and how we need to think differently and connect diet and food?
Absolutely. So, you know, there's actually We're facing a Zoloft shortage at the moment, so sertraline is on shortage and certain dosages. And it's happened during this time because people have become so much more anxious and actually depressed. People were not feeling that way before. And I feel that what happens when we see people clinically is that, you know, we may prescribe, and I do prescribe medications, but some people come to me who want to try an alternate being if they're not you know, actively suicidal or manic and not experiencing the psychotic episode, it's perfectly reasonable to start with nutritional strategies. But what I find is in the medication population that I treat of patients, not everyone gets better. And I really push against having to add on a second medication if I don't need to, unless it's for a separate symptom completely, which almost never happens. So They don't get better. I always suggest that they be in other forms of therapy. So someone with anxiety should be using one of the apps that I would suggest that they use for anxiety and mindfulness. They should be doing learning breathing exercises. They should be paying attention to exercise and sleep as well. So it's not just one component, but with the medication, they don't necessarily get better. And sometimes they develop side effects that put them off wanting to be fully adherent with the medication. and they get disheartened. And it's unclear, you know, whether they get disheartened as maybe some of the weight gain happens or they're just not feeling good. And I think that there's something, you know, we need to look at the cycle.
So you're depressed, the medication doesn't work, and then you gain weight, and then you're even more depressed. Exactly.
So, you know, it's sort of this cycle that they get into, and they don't necessarily fit into, you know, criteria. So I do think that we need to re-examine that in a more global way, but that's where these alternate strategies can be very useful for someone who's invested in really trying to unpack for themselves what might be the problem and work in a consistent way who wants to embrace a healthier diet and healthier foods to feel better.
