Thread by @KetoCounselor

Medications called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, can affect how microglia and astrocytes produce inflammatory molecules. 🧵 (1/19)

Interleukin 8, or IL-8, is a molecule that causes inflammation in the body. It is produced by immune cells in the brain called macrophages, microglia, and astrocytes. (2/19)

IL-8 can either help or hurt the body's response to inflammation, depending on how much is present. IL-8 is complicated. It can have neuroprotective or neurotoxic roles. (3/19)

But we know that high IL-8 levels are involved in poor performance in memory, cognitive speed, and motor function. (4/19)

Research suggests that major depressive disorder may partly be caused by inflammation in the brain due to problems with microglia and astrocytes. (5/19)

Changes in the activity of microglia and astrocytes in the hippocampus may be related to problems with memory and thinking in people with major depressive disorder. (6/19)

This cross-sectional study investigated serum IL-8 levels, cognitive function, and their associations in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) patients with SSRIs. (7/19) doi.org/10.1186/s12888…
They had three major findings ⬇️

1) Cognitive function was worse in MDD patients with SSRIs than in healthy controls (8/19)

2) IL-8 levels were nominally higher in MDD patients with SSRIs than in healthy controls (9/19)

3) IL-8 levels were positively associated with delayed memory, and visuospatial sub-scores in MDD patients with SSRIs (10/19)

What does this mean exactly? That MDD patients still exhibited poorer cognitive abilities even though they were treated with the SSRI antidepressants. (11/19)

Even though several recent studies reported that SSRIs could improve cognitive function in patients with MDD. (12/19)

Although patients with MDD were administrated oral single SSRI in this cross-sectional study, their findings did not support that SSRIs could achieve cognitive remission of MDD. (13/19)

I thought you should know. And I thought you might also like to know that ketogenic diets are modulators of IL-8 (14/19)

Ketogenic diets show a better reduction of IL-8 than isocaloric diets low in fat over a 12-week period. (15/19) doi.org/10.1038/nm.3804

Not impressed? Here is another one.
BHB led to a significant upregulation of IL8, among other factors of a better balanced immune response. Again, it's about balance. And a ketogenic does that. (16/19)
embopress.org/doi/full/10.15…

Do you need another one showing the positive effects of ketogenic diets on IL-8? Because I seriously do not want you guys to think I just make this stuff up. ⬇️ (17/19)

"there was an overall greater anti-inflammatory effect associated with the VLCKD, as evidenced by greater decreases in ... IL-8." (18/19)
doi.org/10.1007/s11745…

If you have MDD, and you have the terrible brain fog symptoms that go with that, your SSRI may not be the rescue you were hoping for. But according to the literature, a ketogenic might be.
(19/19) #depression #MDD #neuroinflammation #ketones