Archive for the “Essential Health” Category

Nutritional Solutions for Depression and Mood Disorders Part II

Depression and mood disorders are characterized by extreme feelings. These feelings can include feelings of dejection, sadness, and emptiness. Symptoms can include poor appetite accompanied by inadequate diet and weight loss, or increased appetite with weight gain: insomnia or excess sleep; changes in usual activities; loss of interest; fatigue; loss of concentration and feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt.

In certain cases depression is indeed appropriate to a life event. To be diagnosed as depression, the depressed state must  be experienced for at least one month and should be defined as inappropriate to one’s life’s events. The causes of depression are categorized as psychological, sociological, biochemical or physiological. Specifically, they can include an overreaction to one’s life’s events or to stress, lack of sunlight during the winter months (Seasonal Affective Disorder), poor diet, nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, allergies, environmental and microbial factors or any serious physical disorder.

Good nutrition is a vital part to appropriate psychiatric care. Studies have shown that nutrients can profoundly influence biochemistry and brain activity. Among nutritionally oriented doctors, it is believed that diet is often the cause of depression and that our Western diet –which emphasizes junk food, snacking, processed foods and poor eating styles- is the primary contributor to mood disorders.

Some Nutritional Lifestyle Suggestions

vAvoid Caffeine and sugar. Research is showing many individuals experience a wonderful lift emotionally after eliminating caffeine and sugar from their diets.

vIncrease your consumption of tryptophan-rich foods. L-tryptophan is an amino acid that essentially is responsible for the production of serotonin, which is the part of our brain chemistry that can elevate mood and assist in normal sleep. Research has shown that in depressed individuals, the transportation of tryptophan maybe inhibited. A complex carbohydrate rich meal has been shown to facilitate the body’s ability to absorb tryptophan. Some tryptophan rich foods include turkey,raw  milk, bananas, figs, and dates.

vAvoid over processed and rancid fats. Bad fats can inhibit the synthesis of neurotransmitters in the brain,and can cause the blood cells to clump together resulting in poor circulation to the brain. On the other hand, healthy fats, like organic extra virgin olive oil, organic virgin coconut oil, raw organic butter and avocados ensure vascular flexibility and improved circulation.

v  Eating quality proteins that contain essential fatty acids can increase alertness. Some foods that contain essential fatty acids are wild caught salmon, sardines, organic almonds and sunflower seeds. Please make these organic whenever possible.

vIncrease your exercise. We keep hearing that gentle exercise done 3-4 times a week will make a great deal of difference in one’s ability to balance a mood disorder. Studies show a decrease in depression with an increase in movement and exercise.

vStudies have also shown the benefits of appropriate supplementation with whole food vitamins, systemic enzymes, Essential Fatty Acids and minerals. Why Ziquin

We at Self-Health Essentials support you in making these simple action steps in gaining balance and peace of mind. Please know this information is not intended as a substitute for consulting with your health care provider.These are suggestions to begin as you gather your many resources.

An Adrenal Supporting Lifestyle  

Managing the stress in your life is key to supporting your adrenals. The most important factor in managing the stress is understanding the mind-body connection in regards to stress. We know that what makes a situation stressful for one person may not be stressful for another. Remember the example of a person in a car stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic.  It can be perceived as an opportunity for listening to a self-health audiotape or perceived as highly frustrating. Either way the operative word is perception. Whether a situation is stressful or not is based on our perception. And our perception is based on what we believe to be true. Our beliefs determine our perception. So if we believe bumper-to-bumper traffic is stressful, guess what for us it will be. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can learn to change how we perceive things by changing how we look at things and yes even our beliefs. Letting go of our fears is the first step toward creating a fuller, more satisfying life. We need to seek joyful, loving and fulfilling activities, ones that stimulate us to grow and be happy at heart. After all we are worth it! Let this be our mantra. I do those things that give me joy and let go of those things not in harmony with my joy.

Providing nutritional support. Now let’s talk about a day-to-day adrenal supporting plan. 

On a fresh sheet of paper make a heading “health drains” and list everything and everyone in your daily life that are health-limiting factors. The following are examples;

Junk food, alcohol, overwork, chemicalized water, coffee, financial pressures, unhappy work or home environment, prescription or non-prescription drugs, lack of fresh air, tobacco, lack of sleep, soft drinks and chemical pollutants. The idea is to minimize as much as possible those health-limiting factors in your life that take away from supporting your adrenals and overall health.  

Someone who has adrenal fatigue have used up much of the body’s stored nutrients and are in desperate need of new supplies just to continue to function, let alone heal. Good quality food is the best source of these nutrient. Nutritional supplements can increase your ability to heal and speed your recovery.

If you have adrenal fatigue, when you eat is almost as important as what you eat. Low blood sugar is in itself a stressful situation that further drains yours adrenals. Therefore, avoid letting your blood sugar levels drop too low by eating natural, high quality food at frequent, regular intervals. Small high quality meals are ideal. It is important that you eat before 10:00 am. If you eat breakfast earlier in the morning around 8:00 am then you will want to have a snack around 10:00 am. You need to replenish your waning glycogen supply after the previous night’s energy requirements. Then lunch at noon, a snack sometime between 2:00 and 3:00 pm and your evening meal around 5:00 to 6:00 pm. Later in the evening, before bed, just a couple of bites of a high quality snack is often the key to successfully getting through the night without sleep disturbances or feeling wrecked in the morning.

It is best to combine fat, protein, and whole food carbohydrates at every meal and snack. Eating sugar or sugary foods is hard on your body. It makes blood sugar rise too high, too fast, and subsequently fall too low, leaving your body starving for fuel again.

Salt craving is a common symptom in all stages of adrenal fatigue. Most people with adrenal fatigue have low blood pressure, not high. Salt is a welcome addition to the diet in adrenal fatigue because it not only helps increase blood pressure, but also helps restore some of the other functions related to sodium loss within the cells. If you have concerns about taking salt and high blood pressure check with your doctor. We recommend natural unrefined sea salt and Ziquin Nanomeds. Another way to naturally increase sodium levels are to take sea vegetables like kelp and dulse.       

Vegetables that are high in sodium and helpful in supporting adrenal recovery include the following; kelp, dulse, green and black olives, beet greens, celery, zucchini, and Swiss chard. Please refer to the recipe for adrenal recovery soup that is posted on our blog.

People with adrenal fatigue are hugely lacking in several vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids and this is where high quality supplemental can speed recovery. Both Ziquin’s mind and body tonic and EFA complete is crucial to supplying the body and adrenals of the nutrients it so dearly needs. 

Summary of what to eat: Eat a wide variety of whole, natural foods. Combine a fat, protein and carbohydrate source with every meal or snack. Eat lots of vegetables, especially the brightly colored ones. Use unrefined sea salt if you crave it. Eat mainly whole grains and vegetable sources of carbohydrates. Eat high quality foods.

Adequate rest. For people with adrenal fatigue, it is important to be in bed and on your way to sleep by 10:30 pm. Although most people’s schedules do not allow it, it also helps to sleep in until 9:00 in the morning. For those who have a day job, sleeping in on the weekends until this time is highly beneficial. Sleeping in until 9:00 am gives your adrenals a chance to rest, allowing your cortisol levels to rise. Normally cortisol levels rise rapidly from 6:00 to 8:00 am, but quite often in adrenal fatigue these levels do not rise as high and/or drop faster than normal. Also when your cortisol levels are lower, as in adrenal fatigue, it takes longer to feel fully awake in the morning. Sleeping in, therefore, is not only restorative for your adrenals but also helps you feel much better when you wake up and during the rest of the day.

If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep this is a sign that your cortisol levels are probably low due to depleted or exhausted adrenal function. As mentioned before the reason you awaken in the middle of the night is due your body releasing adrenaline instead of cortisol to raise your blood sugar. This works as a brain stimulant, which naturally keeps you awake. To help counteract this have a light snack that contains protein, unrefined carbohydrate, and a high quality fat before going to bed, such as a slice of whole grain bread with almond butter.

1)     Be sure to get enough physical exercise during the day. Rapid breathing expels volatile gases out of your body that become harmful if they build up. The increased blood flow helps keep plaque from building up in your arteries while stimulating your liver to perform more efficiently. Cell function improves with accompanying acceleration of carbon dioxide, oxygen and nutrient exchange. Exercise normalizes levels of cortisol, insulin, blood glucose, growth hormone, thyroid, and several other hormones and puts more oxygen into your brain. Exercise also decreases depression.

2)     Avoid coffee, caffeine containing beverages and chocolate because they act as stimulants. These can interrupt sleep patterns and increase morning lows.

3)     If you are having difficulty going to sleep and usually watch TV or work on a computer late at night, try having an 8:00   PM limit on these visual stimuli.

4)      Some common herbs used to promote better sleep are hops, catnip, valerian root and licorice root.

5)     Try to schedule breaks around times when you feel more tired so that you can lie down for 15-30 minutes. Lying down is much more restorative than sitting, for the person with adrenal fatigue.

6)     Laughter. Norman Cousins found that two important keys to rebuild your adrenals are laughter and vitamin C. He laughed himself back to health from a debilitating disease. We recommend a whole food natural source of vitamin C like Acerola cherries.

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