Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Charlie Thomas from Oklahoma writes this, "I'm retired struggling with staying up beat
in the past I've had issues with depression, but I don't want to take pills. What can I
do to stay off medications that make me feel groggy, and by the way do nothing for sex
life?" Why are so many Americans depressed? You know this is a sad but interesting phenomenon,
so when I was working as a plastic surgeon at one point in time I thought almost about
50% of my patience were on anti-depressants. One thing that's happening is that family
doctors are kind of prescribing half hazard anti depressants when anyone has any problems
rather than looking at alternatives for what they can do, but our diet and lifestyle really
has a lot to do with our mood. And we've got really out of balance as far as how we were
originally designed so when you think about it thousands of years ago, how were human
beings living. So most of us were outside, you know we were hunters and gatherers. We
were getting plenty of sunshine, lots of exercise, eating fresh fruits and vegetables, and getting
lots of nutrients, and now the way that we're living now, we're in doors, we're sitting
in front of computers we're eating on the run, we're really out of balance with it.
So we're seeing it show up in so many different ways from different chronic diseases, but
also in depression. So what research shows is that if you start to do some things that
bring your body into balance and are more in line with how we were designed as human
beings then a lot of the mood disorders are alleviated. So for instance, exercise. There's
been a lot of research on exercise that shows that you know just getting out and doing some
brisk walking or any kind of a aerobic, or even strengthening exercise that works just
as well if not better than antidepressant medication. So let me just back up for a minute.
Is depression a clinical diagnosis or is it more like a chemical imbalance? Well there's
really a whole spectrum of depressions. So it can be something where it's just kind of
a situational mood than to actual clinical depression where you've got some neurotransmitter
chemical problems. Now even if you have that one of the things we know is that our colon
is actually a site, you wouldn't think that, secondary brains right? Where we manufacture
neurotransmitters, so our digestion the foods that we eat and having good colon health and
bowel habits are something that actually improve the amount of neurotransmitters that we make.
What are some other natural alternatives to medicines that we can take to help with depression?
So exercise I mentioned before and I'm mentioning it again because it's actually the thing that
has the most powerful influence in where the research shows that it can be equal to if
not better than taking antidepressant medications. In addition to that we know that vitamin D
which is our sun shine vitamins. So being outside in the sun can sometimes elevate your
mood you might notice. Because we're manufacturing vitamin D. If you live in a place where you're
not getting enough sunshine and particularly in the winter time it's known to have something
called seasonal effective disorder or sad where you don't get enough sunlight, and so
in those cases what you want to do is to take supplemental vitamin D and sometimes during
some full spectrum lighting can help as well. Ok, well I think there's some good news for
Charlie Thomas, he can get exercise, he can get work outside, get some sunshine improve
some of his eating habits and overcome some of his problems. Sure, and I'll just mention
there's certain foods that we know that can cause problems that are like pro inflammatory
type foods or sugar for instance. There's even a book called sugar blues, where if you're
eating sugary meals it can cause your blood sugar to spike, which initially you're going
to feel like you have lots of energy but then it crashes and then you can feel some depression
associated with that. So actually trying to keep your blood sugar level stable is helpful
for your mood, and then also because our brains are coated with fat and all our nerves are
coated with fat. Fat is actually extremely important for good nerve health, good emotional
health, and omega 3 fatty acids are considered the very best types of fats that you can possibly
consume, and there's research showing that people who do consume a lot of those have
a much improved situation with depression as well. Well thank you Doctor Horner for
sharing your views on how to help with depression. If you have a question about this topic or
any other just click on the link bellow we'd love to hear from you.