Posts Tagged ‘mental health’

Depression can be stopped in its tracks. Pharmaceuticals aren’t the only or best way to reduce depression. Administrating drugs for what many times is a lifestyle condition is the wrong approach. High potency drugs can cause more problems then they solve. The numbers and variety of legal drugs are increasingly suspected of causing this problem. Some common drugs that are known to cause depression are: barbiturates, amphetamines, pain killers, beta-blockers, high blood pressure medications, heart medications and psychotropic drugs.

Depression Solutions

A good diet has many benefits that help with mood disorders, ADHD, cognitive function, and depression. The biggest barrier to brain health is a poor diet. After decades of of looking at mental disorders as separate from overall health, the tide is turning. There is a relationship between what you eat, how much you exercise, and what you think.

Essential Fatty Acids

Two-thirds of the brain is composed of specific kinds of fats. The two kinds of fatty acids that your body can’t manufacture and needs from food sources are the ones the brain depends on. These are the essential fatty acids (EPAs): Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) the foundation of the ”omega-3″ group of fatty acids, and Liolic acid (LA) the foundation of the “omega-6″ group of fatty acids.

These are the building blocks of brain cells. Food sources of Omega-3 (ALA) are flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, sea vegetables, green leafy vegetables, salmon, sardines, mackerel, trout, olive oil, grass fed beef and dairy. Linolic acid (LA) is found in expelled cold pressed oils, like sesame, primrose, flax, and others. The other sources are pumpkin seeds, avocados, poultry, cashews, acai berry, and spirulina. Many of the foods that have omega 3 contain Linoleic acid.

The brain makes docosehexaenoic acid (DHA) from (ALA) and (LA). Scientist at the National Institutes of Health has associated the increase in depression in North America with the decline of DHA. This is the most important fat for all cognitive functions.

B Vitamins

The B-complex vitamins are essential to both mental and emotional health. The B vitamins can’t be stored they depend on our daily consumption of them. They are destroyed by alcohol, refined sugar, nicotine, caffeine, and stress.

Vitamin B1 (thiamine) is used by the brain to help convert glucose into fuel, it is the primary source of energy for the brain. Deficiencies can lead to fatigue, depression, irritability anxiety, and insomnia. Simple carbohydrates such as sugar drains the supply of all B complex vitamins.

Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) aids is the processing of amino acids. the building blogs of serotonin, melatonin and dopamine. These are know as the happy hormones.

Vitamin  B12 is important in preventing Anemia, which can cause mood swings, paranoia, irritability, confusion, dementia, and depression.. Folic Acid is need for DNA sysnthesis.

Lifestyle 

With our modern lifestyle many people shouldn’t be a stranger to depression. Depression is more than genetics. This condition is more than minor worries; it is the collapse of our agriculture system. The quality of our food supply is dismal. As our nutritional foundation is giving way our mental illnesses will sky rocket. Just by looking at the rates of autism, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and bi-polar disorders you can see the hair-curling trend. This is unprecedented and is setting the stage for a boon in prescription medications.

Emotions have a connection to disease. Modern medicine must realize they have to treat the person rather than the condition. What seems surprising is the amazing ability of the mind and emotions to interact with all the systems in the body. The secret to health may lie in our emotional make-up. The whole body approach to health must include our mental status, and emotional make-up.

Studies

A study conducted by Leslie Kerr, Ph D, associate professor of biology and psychology at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, and colleagues, examining the effects of stress and other social experiences on cancer development.

Young mice that experience the psychosocial stress or prolonged separation from their mothers had a higher incidence and faster onset of breast tumors compared with young mice that did not experience this stressful life event. They developed tumors twice as fast.

There are observations in humans that back this up. Stress seems to be a factor in a recurrence of the condition.

Another study of nearly 70,000 women found a clear association between abuse in childhood and adolescence and type 2 diabetes in adult women. Much of this can be attributed to a greater weight gain in girls who have been abused. The weight can account for only 60 percent of the incident of type 2 diabetes.

It doesn’t take rocket science to understand that stress can do you in. When under stress it is hard to feel great. All healing wisdom calls for stress control. Depression, and anxiety, is known to cause poor appetite, overeating, irritability, aches and pains, and fatigue.

The idea is simple your whole-body suffers when you are stressed. The physical and emotional are intertwined. The immune system responds to the hormones you release. Mental burnout takes a toll on the body. So how can anyone think emotions aren’t tied to physical conditions.
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The newest research on creativity and mental health finds some interesting correlations.

We have studied the brain and the dopamine D2 receptors, and have shown that the dopamine system of healthy, highly creative people is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia,” said associated professor Fredrik Ulen from the Karoliska Institute’s Department of Women’s and Children’s Health.

High creative skills have been shown to be somewhat more common in people who have mental illness in the family. Creativity is linked to a slightly higher risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The ability to made either unusual or bizarre associations are seen in both healthy creative people and schizophrenics.

Creativity

Since many of us had crazy parents or relatives (so we though), we should delight in our creativity. Dr. Ullen says “Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box.”

Perhaps thinking outside the box sees that inside the box is where the crazy thinking resides. It is the earth is flat type thinking many times. A lot of times creativity is being ahead of the convenient truth.

Mental Health

Creativity is mental health at its best; it takes us a step ahead of where we are. There are many examples of creative genius who have shown signs of metal illness.

However, what a society usually does to safeguard the institution is create a norm that the creative people go above and beyond. They see all the possibilities in ever situation, and have a keen sense of adventure through invention.

What creative people have is a good sense of awareness that what they see isn’t all there is. They find ways that work around limitations, and despite common sense arguments they gather steam and plow forward.

Mental health is what society accepts while looking to satisfy its voracious appetite for the expected.

Creativity is the unexpected results from seeing a new relationship with the vast possibilities.

Creatively supports the voice of freedom to see a thing is a whole new way.