You are my Antidepressant

When I started eating pressed garlic daily, there was an array of sensations that came with my four o’clock pm garlic hummus toast: sourdough toast layered with about eight pressed cloves of garlic into a 1/2 cup of hummus. There was warmth, burning, and stinging, but an unnoticed effect; until I went a few days without my daily dose, was that moments after eating it, I had an increased satisfaction in my mind, a sense of overall well-being, and a distinctive new ability to focus.

It wasn’t surprising to find that studies have proven that the many substances in garlic actually do contribute similarly to antidepressants’ effects on the brain; and sometimes work better because there aren’t any of the unwanted side effects of prescription medications.  According to the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Journal of Food and Function, November 2019, “garlic extract elicits antidepressant-like effects by interacting with a1 adrenoceptors, dopamine D2 receptors, serotonergic and GABAergic receptors” (Huang, Lu, Lin, Panyod, Wu, Chang, Sheen).  This is a traditional monoaminergic standpoint in that they relate depression to the monoamine neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and histamine.  Another study suggests that one compound, “2-Cyclohexyl-1 methylpropyl, cyclohexane, was found to exhibit significant potential to be developed as an SSRI” (Khushboo, Kuari, Sharma, Som).  SSRI’s, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are a common type of prescription antidepressant.

This is only one way in which garlic has been found to impact depression.  Most studies that relate garlic to antidepressive attributes, find the connection between garlics antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and their effects on the brain.  It has been found that depression might be attributed to “depleted stores of antioxidants” (Mendelson 19), “including zinc, coenzyme Q10, vitamin E, and glutathione.”  Such individuals also tend to show biomarkers indicative of oxidative and nitrosative damage” (Mendelson 19).  In the book, Herbal Treatment of Major Depression, Scott D Mendelson, notes that the effects of both Allium sativum and S-Allylcysteine, are potent antioxidants that activate Nrf2.  “… activation of Nrf2 is associated with antidepressant-like effects”(Mendelson 50).

Allicin, a key component in garlic that contributes to its antidepressant properties has proven to do so through the “prevention of neuroinflammation, regulation of iron overload and oxidative stress, and interruption of cell apoptosis in the hippocampus” (Gao, Wang, Liu, Zhang, Yang, Deng).  The importance of searching for antidepressants by focusing on anti-inflammatory properties is highlighted in the article, Allicin Attenuated Chronic Social Defeat Stress Induced Depressive – Like Behaviors Through Suppression of NLRP3 Inflammasome, because of findings that “antidepressant medications decreased serum levels of inflammatory cytokines” (Gao, Wang, Liu, Zhang, Yang, Deng).

The studies delving into the various compounds of what makes garlic a potential antidepressant are more than I expected.   I really didn’t believe that I would find any sources for my personal thesis, but there are an abundance of them.