The National Institute of Mental Health currently estimates that over 47 million American adults suffer from anxiety, as well as 23 million adolescents.  In addition, depression affects 16 million adults and over 3 million kids. 

That brings the tally up to about 89 million people or nearly one third of the US population that is dealing with mental health issues.

If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will.

The current trends in treatment

“Treatment” for a mental health condition can include inpatient care or outpatient therapy, but the leader of the pack is prescription drugs (antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs).

Although these medications can achieve a desired outcome—people may feel relief from their symptoms—that comes at a very dear price because the side effects can be significantly worse than the original condition.

These can include suicidal thoughts or actions, the development of tics, liver damage, violent, aggressive or homicidal behavior and impaired immune function, to name a few.

Plus, the glaring omission here is that the root cause of the illness is not addressed!

The missing link—neurotransmitters

When you closely look at how your brain works, mental health conditions make a lot more sense…and you can see that there are other (safer) ways to deal with them!

The billions of cells in your brain talk to each other and pass along information using chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. 

When one brain cell wants to send a message to another, it releases the proper neurotransmitter.  The neurotransmitter floats across a tiny space between the two cells (called the synaptic cleft) and the receiving cell “catches” the message in one or more of its “catcher’s mitts” (neuroreceptors).

Although this sounds like a SLOW process, it actually happens at the speed of light.

Once the message is delivered, the leftover neurotransmitters are cleaned up in one of two ways:

1. They get broken down by enzymes, go through the liver and get put into your urine or feces
2. They get sucked up by little “vacuums” in your brain (reuptake pumps) and are recycled

 

The star players

Although your body has over 50 neurotransmitters, here are your major players in terms of mental health and the nutrients they are made of:

Serotonin

Function:  Regulates your appetite, mood, sensory perception and immune function.

What deficiency can cause: Depression, eating disorders, chronic pain, sleep disorders, emotional problems, anxiety and aggression.

The recipe:  The amino acid tryptophan, B vitamins, vitamin C, zinc and iron.

Gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA)

Function:  Has a calming effect on your mood.

What deficiency can cause: Anxiety, over-excitability, seizure disorders and mania.

The recipe:  The amino acid glutamate, vitamin B6, manganese, biotin, lysine and taurine.

Dopamine

Function:  Controls your arousal, movement and hormonal responses.

What deficiency can cause: Muscular and cell rigidity, tremors and Parkinson’s disease.

The recipe:  The amino acids tyrosine or phenylalanine, vitamin B6, folic acid, iron, copper, magnesium and zinc.

Acetylcholine

Function:  Controls electrical activity of your brain and is vital for memory storage.

What deficiency can cause: Memory loss, depression, confusion and muscle incoordination. 

The recipe:  The amino acid choline, vitamins B6, B5 and B3, manganese, lysine and threonine.

Medications artificially manipulate neurotransmitters

The reason psychiatric drugs achieve their intended effect is that they artificially manipulate your levels of neurotransmitters.

For example, SSRI antidepressants block your reuptake pumps from vacuuming up leftover serotonin.  By forcing serotonin to hang around between your brain cells, many people sense that they feel “happier.”

But this can blow up in your face, because it can eventually cause you to have too much serotonin—which can make your depression even worse!

Anti-anxiety medications target GABA, which is your “calming” neurotransmitter.  The popular Benzodiazepines (including Valium and Xanax) curb anxiety through the way they interact with your brain’s GABA receptors.

But over time increasing amounts of these drugs are needed to achieve the desired result, making it very easy to become addicted.  And overdose can be fatal.

A better approach

What people don’t realize is that when you help encourage proper levels of neurotransmitters in your body, you can feel a whole lot better from anxiety and depression!

Here are ways you can naturally help support proper levels of neurotransmitters…and your state of mind!

Have a healthy, nutrient-dense diet

Have a whole foods diet with lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, fish, real butter, olive oil, coconut oil, eggs and dairy.  These are the foods that will help supply the proper nutrients for your body to make your neurotransmitters. 

Also, incorporate fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchee and kombucha into your diet.  These support a healthy gut environment, and since 90 percent of your body’s serotonin is manufactured in your gut, you need to give your gut the help it needs!

At the same time, ditch the soda, sugars and refined carbs.  These disrupt the balance in your gut microbiome, leech essential nutrients from your body and disrupt ALL of your body’s processes, including maintaining proper levels of neurotransmitters.

Make sure you have enough vitamins B12 and B6

Vitamin B12 helps control a process in your body called methylation.  Methylation is vital to the formation of many neurotransmitters, and methylation abnormality is a factor behind mental health problems. 

Plus, vitamin B6 is part of the “recipe” for many of your mental health neurotransmitters!

Hydroxaden 2.5 can help you achieve this important goal!  B12 is a very common deficiency due to poor absorbability in the GI tract, but Hydroxaden helps you avoid those problems with its oral spray delivery.  You just spritz it right under your tongue and your body gets a healthful dose of B12 (and B6!) through the mucus membranes in your mouth.

Get Omega-3 essential fatty acids

Omega-3 essential fatty acids are absolutely VITAL for mental health, but our food supply is severely lacking in these crucial nutrients, due to our reliance on grain-fed animals and processed foods.

Plus, much of the fish that used to be good providers of these fats are farmed and contaminated!

The best way to make sure you have mental-health supporting levels of Omega-3 fats is through a purified, pharmaceutical-grade fish oil formula like VitalMega-3. 

VitalMega-3 delivers a whopping 1,200 mg of pure Omega-3 fats in every 2-capsule dose, including the mental health superstars EPA and DHA. 

Support your mental (and physical!) health naturally by giving your body the nutrients it needs, and you’ll be on the road to feeling a whole lot better fast!

To your health,

Sherry Brescia