 Diet Drinks and Depression. Is there a connection? Hi, this is Dr. Ruscio and there was recently a study published that showed a connection between diet drinks and depression. Those who drank four or more diet drinks per day had a 31% increased risk of depression. So how do we account for this? Well, if you viewed my video on depression, you see I present a five-point causal model of depression. One of the points is neurotoxic or neurotoxins or things that can cause brain damage. And while controversial, it has been suggested that artificial sweeteners may cause damage to the brain. Specifically, this is called excitotoxicity and this is something that's been pioneered by a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon named Russell Blalock. Now in this report, it should be noted that we cannot make any definite conclusions. This is a preliminary study and we cannot say for certain that this association is valid, but it certainly draws some light to this subject. Now to quote Dr. Chen, an investigator for the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, he says, the research is preliminary and more investigation into the topic is needed. But he continues that these findings are intriguing and are consistent with a small but growing number of studies linking artificial sweetened drinks to poor health. And it's because of this that I want to share this information with you because in my personal experience, I have seen some people notice fairly marked improvements in neurological or psychiatric complaints when going off artificial sweeteners. Now again, we don't know that this association has certainly been proven just yet, but it certainly puts another piece of evidence into the pile supporting avoidance of artificial sweeteners. You can find the link to this study in the show notes section. And if you have any questions, feel free to contact our office. This is Dr. Rucho, and hopefully you'll be a little more careful when you reach for an artificial sweetener.