The Inflammation-Depression Connection

Majid Ali, M.D.

Two core message of this article are:

1. Look for and address all inflammation-related factors if you suffer from depression.

2. Look for and address all depression-related factors if you suffer from an inflammatory-immune disorders.

For information about natural remedies, please consider the following two free courses, as well as my top seven remedies for chronic inflammation and chronic infections (at

1. Dr. Ali’s Depression Course

2. Dr. Ali’s Inflammation Course

3. Dr. Ali’s Top Seven natural Remedies for Inflammation and Infection

Children get hurt at play. Every injury can heal only by inflammation. There is no other way of healing. Do children get depressed every time they get hurt? This questions need not be answered.

I broke my elbow bones twice when I was about twelves and required treatment with plaster-of-Paris casts. My elbows have not bothered my during the last 64 years. This a testament to evolution of the inflammatory process which can heal broken bones so perfectly. And, no, I was not depressed. What does this tell us about the inflammation-depression connection?

I have seen over 2,000 patients who were in good health and had never experienced unexplained sadness, let alone depression, until they were disabled by inflammatory conditions, such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, polyarthralgia. After years of unremitting suffering and not seeing clear hope of recovery, most of them developed depression of varying degrees. What does this tell us about the inflammation-depression connection?

Most people with chronic painful inflammatory-immune disorders lasting for years become depressed. Most of them heal well with effective direct and indirect oxygen therapies and become free of depression. What does this tell us about the oxygen-depression connection?

Inflammation begins with cellular fermentation, which is another word of impaired oxygen conditions. What does this reveal about the depression-oxygen-inflammation connection?

Half way in writing this article, I saw a patient who suffers depression and has ankylosing spondylitis, a condition of the spine which in its active form can be very painful. At one point I printed a copy of the incomplete text. He read it and said, “I know depression relapse makes my spondylitis worse and a flare-up of spondylitis deepens my depression. What does he teach us about the depression-inflammation connection?

Serotonin Enthusiasts

Companies making drugs for depression have been spectacular success in turning medical professionals into Pavlov’s dog. Utter the word depression and hear the Pavlovian screams: serotonin, serotonin, and serotonin. The masters of drug companies know the dollars are in disease literacy which paves the way to drug literacy. They see no profits in healing literacy. So they promote “serotonin-talk,” which sells serotonin drugs like Prozac, Paxil, and others. They keep on their payroll doctors who sell their drugs with lofty ideals.

Neurotransmitters and Neurotransmission

A neurotransmitter is a molecules by which a brain cell engages in cellular cross-talk with another brain cell or a muscle cell. The term neurotransmission refers to a series of processes by which neurotransmitters are produced, stored, released, and perform their functions. A basic understanding of this fact makes it abundantly clear that a neurotransmitter is just one piece of the complex processes of neurotransmission. For example, the release of neurotransmitters from their storage vacuoles in brain cells is triggered by an energy wave—action potential is the term used for this wave—which is generated by nutrients such potassium and chloride in the membrane of the brain cell. The cell membrane, of course, is an enormously complex structures composed of many nutrients which responds to many mineral, hormonal, and metabolic signals. Simply stated, no cell membrane can be healthy and function well in the presence of toxicities of food, environment, and stress.

In the broader context of neurotransmission, many years ago I recognized that the liver is the guardian angle of the brain and the bowel is that of the liver. How odd is it that I have never read an article written by a psychiatrist or a psychologist who looks at the problems of neurotransmitters in this broad, holistic, and scientific light?

Anybody Who Speaks Against Antidepressants Is a Fool

And anybody who speaks against natural remedies to minimize the use of antidepressant drugs is a bigger fool. Such remedies include brain nutrients, bowel-liver detox, healthful spices, direct and indirect oxygen therapies, and energy healing methods (slow breathing and others), and healing conversations. I point out that the common denominator among the mechanisms of all these natural remedies is oxygen. Oxygen, I assert, is the most important neurotransmitter.

Anybody who speaks against antidepressants is a fool. I repeat these words to explain that hundreds of million people worldwide are alive today because of antidepressant drugs. Natural remedies simply are not enough for acute depression emergencies.

Inflammation-Cytokines-Depression Connections

Inflammation heals injuries and controls infection by producing a class of substances called cytokines. Two large families of this class of substances are interleukins and interferons. These substances actively interact with neurotransmitters. This knowledge vastly improves our understanding of the inflammation-depression link. In a clinical setting, it is crucial to be clear that cytokines-depression connections do not constitute the first-line interactions.



Oxygen Models of Inflammation and Depression

My Oxygen Models of Depression and Inflammation are extension of my Oxygen Model of Health and Disease. These are unifying models that explain all aspects of Depression and Inflammation—causes, clinical course, consequences, and control—on the basis of disturbed oxygen function. The most important among these compromised and/or blocked functions are: (1) oxygen signaling; (2) oxygen’s ATP energy generation; (3) oxygen’s detergent functions; (4) oxygen’s cellular detox functions; (5) oxygen-regulated cell membrane and matrix functions; (6) oxygen’s cellular repair roles.

The Oxygen Models of Depression and Inflammation provide simple models that allow physicians to reduce complexities of diverse clinical syndromes into a workable simplicity.


The crucial importance of the Unifying Oxygen Model of Depression and Inflammation is that they:

* Explain the scientific basis of physiology and pathology of these disordes;

* Shed light on various contributory causative factors fan each other’s fires;

* Elucidate how toxicities of foods, environments, and thoughts set the stage for causing and/or fanning the fires of these disorders;

* Reveal the mechanisms by which various detox therapies restore functions of brain cells and nerves in these disorders;

* Allow the formulation of rational and effective designs for controlling and reversing these disorders; and

* Provide explanations of mechanisms by which time-honored natural remedies work to arrest or modify these disorders.

Please go to for specifics of natural remedies for relief from depression and persistent inflammation. Specifically consider the following two course

Dr. Ali’s Depression Course

Dr. Ali’s Inflammation Course

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