It seems that they have identified the cause why a woman can suffer from postpartum depression, a research group shows a relationship between the production of copper in the body and depressions after giving birth.
Daily our body needs between 1 and 2 milligrams of copper for proper functioning, therefore, it is an essential nutrient that we can obtain from foods that are rich in copper. Well, according to research conducted by William Walsh of the Pfeiffer and John Crayton Treatment Center of the University of Loyola (Maywood), mothers suffering from postpartum depression have high rates of copper in their body. To reach this conclusion, the researchers measured the level of zinc and copper that 78 women had in their blood who had suffered postpartum depression and had no type of psychiatric illness in their medical history. The copper levels obtained were significantly higher than those presented by another group that had not suffered such depression.
There are still some unknowns to unveil, such as why the mother's organism does not resume the production of copper that she presented before she was pregnant, since during pregnancy it is necessary to increase production in order to meet the needs of the baby. Another unknown is the origin of this depression, which could possibly be genetic.
We will have to wait for new investigations that end up clarifying the reason for postpartum depression and the most appropriate solution to prevent or eliminate it.
