Saturday 9 June 2018

Does Turmeric Help Depression?


A month ago I described how various scientific journals had found the use of turmeric to relieve the effects of depression. I decided to put this to the test by taking one flat teaspoon of the yellow powder every morning. Gross. Anyway, a month has passed and I've had a lot of turmeric. What's happened?

I've been focussing on four personal bests at the gym. 10 minute cross train, 10 minute run, chest press and horizontal dumbbell fly. They are four of my oldest PBs. I was hoping that an improved mentality would hammer me through some of these, but it was not to be. I'm still encroaching these targets. So, hardly an uplifting experience. (Pun?)

What about other areas of life? Work? Still learning a new responsibility after a month or so now. It's repetitive but there are a lot of steps to the task. I'm picking up speed. Social? Got my arse handed to me at go karting again. It seems I got worse since April. I've had a few social challenges, like discussing depression onstage in a local bar with Andy's Man Club. This went great. But I've not particularly had any nights out or done anything else social. I tried running some meetups but the response to them was abysmal. Despite this hermit lifestyle, I'm still running out of money at a horrific rate. Career? Fired out a few applications; heard nothing. HMRC? Another Citizen's Advice meeting happens Monday. In the last month I've heard nothing. Typing? Thought I'd beaten a PB, actually hadn't.

It's been a tough month, and if turmeric is worth taking, it's been this month I've needed it. A combination of that, and a 25ml dose of sertraline, hasn't been particularly helpful. I came down to half a dose from 50ml a day as the antidepressant was leaving me feeling numb and was piling weight onto me. My appetite was through the roof. I'm still overweight now.

I'll stick to including turmeric in dishes, but I'm not going to put myself through the spoon-feeding process again.

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