Microsoft word - depression

Depression
by Phil Richards www.philrichardsperformance.co.uk The latest figures show that in the UK there were 34 million prescriptions for anti-depressants. 18 million of these were for a type of drug known as SSRI’s which stand for Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, such as Prozac and Seroxat. These figures are expected to rise as the recession bites and people losing their homes, jobs or businesses seek help. Depression had affected me all my life and it forced me to research this area in depth as I could no longer tolerate having no joy in my life. Thankfully the sun is breaking through into my life again, from the research that I’ve been conducting and from applying the strategies I’ve learned. From my research I have now formulated a number of products like Amino Relax, Brain Formula, Heart Formula and Brain Oil which can help raise serotonin levels. I strongly recommend you combine these products together in raise your serotonin, as well as your health, to an optimum level. There are many factors that will trigger depression. In this article though, I will concentrate on the neurotransmitter Serotonin. I will look at why we have a Serotonin deficiency, not an SSRI deficiency, in the UK. More importantly, I will address what you can do to increase your Serotonin levels. In those of you who suffer with depression, hopefully you will start having more sunny days than dark cloud days. Why is serotonin important when it comes to overcoming depression? Scientists have identified several neurotransmitters in the brain that affect mood, disposition and energy. One neurotransmitter, serotonin, is important in maintaining mental health and a positive attitude. Clinical depression can takes place when there is a significant drop in serotonin. The reason that serotonin is so emotionally vital, is that it is our primary defence against both depression and anxiety. Serotonin deficiency is a factor in many seemingly unrelated psychological and physical symptoms, ranging from panic and irritability to insomnia, PMS to muscle pain. Some dark cloud types have only a few of the possible deficiency symptoms, but many have almost all of them. A decrease in serotonin can produce the reverse of every warm, happy feeling that adequate serotonin would normally allow you to experience. Instead of seeing your glass as half full, you see it as half empty. Instead of feeling proud of your accomplishments, all you can think of is what you haven’t accomplished. Instead of a sound sleep, you get insomnia. Instead of enjoying your family members, you are irritated by them. Instead of peace, you have anxiety. Instead of looking forward to life, you may regard it with dread and even thoughts of suicide. Precious serotonin is synthesised in your body from tryptophan, an amino acid found in foods like avocado, turkey, beef and cheese. Tryptophan first converts into a substance called 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan) which then converts directly into serotonin. Numerous studies have shown how easy it is to create a serotonin deficiency in depressed people within a few hours, simply by feeding them protein shakes that contain the other amino acids but no tryptophan. You may have also been put at risk of a serotonin deficiency from the start by being fed infant formula that did not contain the high human breast milk ratio of tryptophan to other amino acids. Breast milk has a higher proportion of tryptophan than either soya milk or cows’ milk. Believe it or not, getting too little healthy fat may be another way in which your diet has contributed to your low serotonin state. Increasing fat intake, especially DHA from fish oil, increases the availability of tryptophan in the brain. Many of our foods today are depleted of many of the vitamins and minerals that assist in the magical conversion of tryptophan to 5-HTP and then to serotonin. Without enough calcium, magnesium, vitamin D and B vitamins, for example, the neurotransmitters cannot be made consistently. This is why I strongly recommend an organic diet with plenty of vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, fatty fish, offal supplemented with a high quality multi vitamin & mineral for optimum brain function. Chronic exposure to high stress situations can zap your brain of serotonin as it quickly uses up your serotonin supplies trying to keep you calm and centred. Although all of the chemicals responsible for your sense of well being are exhausted by too much stress, serotonin is often the first and most significant causality. We are bombarded by multiple stressors today. You have to balance Yin & Yang for optimum serotonin levels and happiness! If you have lived with your stomach in knots because of low serotonin, worry or anxiety, it might help you to know that 90% of the serotonin in your body is not in your brain, it is in your gut. When you raise serotonin levels, your digestive tension, including constipation, can often dissolve, along with your mental constriction. Your heart is also partly serotonin dependent. It is well known that low serotonin style negative moods, including fear and anger, are closely associated with heart disease. Nourishing all three emotional centres, your brain, your gut and your heart, with the right pro-serotonin supplements like Amino Relax (Phil Richards’ New Formula) and the right diet, can result in big improvements in your health as well as in your mood. Why have we got a serotonin deficiency going on in the UK? There are many causes for serotonin deficiencies and that’s why we have an epidemic of people from all ages on anti depressants and this tragic disease (depression) can be overcome when you know how to play the serotonin game. Now let’s look at what causes Serotonin depletion:  ALCOHOL Conversion of tryptophan to serotonin requires Vitamin B6 (pyrodoxal 5 phosphate ) and magnesium, as cofactors. Alcohol depletes magnesium and Vitamin B6 which affects serotonin levels. Alcohol depletes DHA in the brain, and results in lower DHA levels in the blood. It blocks the enzymes needed to form DHA and this can inhibit serotonin levels and function. Solution: come off the booze or significantly cut down.  ASPARTAME One of its primary ingredients, the amino acid phenylalanine, converts to the stimulating substances tyrosine, dopamine, norepinephirine and adrenaline. Aspartame also contains aspartic acid, one of the most excitatory of nutrients. Both aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine compete with and trounce tryptophan and serotonin. Thousands of foods & beverages contain Aspartame be warned! Solution from chewing gum, medications, diet drinks, diet foods through to whey protein drinks you will find this neurotoxin. READ THE LABEL AND STOP CONSUMING THIS POISON.  CAFFEINE is a potent chemical with psychoactive effects that our body has absolutely no requirement for. Research has indicated that caffeine can interfere with our brain chemistry and therefore can be a factor in contributing to exacerbating stress, anxiety, panic, depression and insomnia. Vitamin B6, as we have already seen, is one vitamin involved in the manufacture of serotonin (this chemical is low in people with anxiety and depression.) Caffeine depletes the body of vitamin B6. This may be another route where caffeine is involved in depression.  A NEW STUDY in the journal Brain Research showed that when normal human subjects were given caffeine or placebo, caffeine resulted in significantly lower levels of melatonin. Melatonin is one of the end products of serotonin which helps you sleep. Solution: stop drinking coffee of if you do so drink one cup (organic) before 11 a.m.  MERCURY can inhibit the action binding of happy hormones like serotonin at the synapse (nerve to nerve connection) leading to depression. Exposure to methyl mercury has been shown in laboratory animals to produce significant decreases in serotonin levels. We are bombarded with mercury today, from the amalgam fillings in your mouths, certain vaccinations, seafood & environmental factors. Solution: if you have amalgam fillings get them removed. Read my article on how to do this. Check any vaccines you have don’t contain thimerosol and minimise fish like tuna and swordfish. Generally the larger the fish, the more mercury they contain.  LIGHT - A lack of sunlight allows serotonin to decrease. This is why so many more people become depressed in the winter. It is also the reason you may feel lethargic on a rainy day. Solution: exercise outdoors as much as you can and in the Winter months get out for at least 30 minutes every day during daylight. Get a UVB lamp and use during the winter months.  STRESS – Stress slowly depletes serotonin. Chronic stress where there is a feeling of loss of control or helplessness results in long-term damage. Solution: aerobic exercise, strength training, yoga, meditation, holidays. Make sure you are with the right partner as the wrong one will deplete the life out of you never mind serotonin.  POOR DIET – To produce positive chemicals, your body needs the raw materials. A diet that is inadequate and not balanced leaves the body (and the mind) struggling to make the components necessary for health. Solution: eat organic, eliminate dairy, minimise meat, eat fatty fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts & seeds. Take a high quality multi vitamin/mineral to make sure you covering your needs.  Lack of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from fatty fish. Sufficient levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain help bring mood into balance. DHA is necessary to facilitate the flow of serotonin across the synaptic junction. Deficiency of DHA in the brain, especially in the area of synapses, seems to relate to low serotonin levels which, in turn, can lead to depression. It makes sense then, that eating fish or taking pharmaceutical grade fish oil on a regular basis is associated with fewer episodes of depression.  Studies show that hostility and aggression are linked to a deficiency of DHA. It's possible that such behaviour could be ameliorated by increasing dietary DHA, which would accumulate in the cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. Obviously, there are other contributing factors and predispositions that determine whether a relatively DHA-deficient individual will be depressed and withdrawn or aggressive and hostile. It should be noted that a DHA deficiency early in life has repeatedly been connected to long-term behaviour problems. Solution: eat 2 – 3 servings a week of fatty fish Eg, sardines, mackerel, salmon and supplement with 1 – 2 teaspoons with Phil Richards Brain Oil.  The question is, what is happening inside the brain to help alleviate depression in the patients who took fish oil? A pretty good assumption is that serotonin levels increased in the brain’s frontal cortex as already been demonstrated in animal experiments. Finally, High dose fish oil almost certainly improved blood flow to the depressed patients’ brains, providing a more uniform distribution of critical nutrients such as oxygen and glucose.  LACK OF EXERCISE – During exercise, your body releases a substance called endorphins, which result in positive brain chemistry. Endorphins also decrease the sensations of pain your body may be feeling and increase a sense of feeling good. Exercise also gives you a "mental break" where you may forget–at least for a while–your day-to-day activities. Solution: mix aerobic with strength training. Try to get 3 X 30 minute outside aerobic workouts and 2 whole body strength workouts a week. Remember if you can’t gain don’t train.  GENETICS – Genetic make-up may be a significant factor in how your body handles serotonin. Just as cholesterol values vary based on heredity, there is a genetic determination to serotonin production and depletion. The National Institute of Health (1996) identified a gene on chromosome 17 that affects serotonin level. The gene comes in short and long forms. It makes a transporter or protein that sweeps away the brain chemical serotonin from between neurons. A long form of this gene removes too much serotonin, thus resulting in a "blue mood." (Which is Included in Phil Richards’ New Formula, Amino Relax) A mood-enhancing chemical, 5 HTP, has attracted a good deal of attention lately because of its ability to increase pain tolerance, induce sleep, and affect how hunger is perceived. Unlike many other supplements (and drugs) that have molecules too large to pass from the bloodstream into the brain, molecules of 5 HTP are small enough to dose. Once in the brain, they're converted into an important nervous system chemical, or neurotransmitter, called serotonin. The almost instant solution to most low serotonin problems is 5-HTP, which is made from an African Griffonia bean. Your body can make its own 5-HTP to convert into serotonin, but there is one catch. It must have enough tryptophan on hand, from food, from which to make it. Chances are it doesn’t! If you take a 5 HTP supplement like Amino Relax, your serotonin production will no longer be dependent on the tryptophan you may or may not get in your food. That means that you can quickly yet naturally replenish your serotonin stores and begin to feel the return of your true emotional self. As an anti-depressant, 5-HTP is so effective that it has repeatedly matched or out-performed many of the most established drugs including Prozac, without the negative side effects so often associated with these drugs. In a 1980 study of 99 patients who had been deeply depressed for an average of 9 years, almost half achieved complete recovery while others experienced significant improvement after being given 5-HTP supplements. The study’s author, Dr JJ Van Hiel had this to say about the benefits of 5-HTO: “I have never, in 20 years, used an agent which was so effective, so quickly, restored the patients so quickly to the people they had been and their partners had known. “ This was achieved with no side effects. Numerous other studies also attest to 5-HTP’s remarkable safety and effectiveness, even when compared to prescription anti-depressants.  The manufacture of Prozac, Eli-Lilly, recently conducted a study combining 5-HTP with Prozac. Seratonin activity was increased 150% on Prozac alone. It was increased 615% after 5-HTP was added.  In studies comparing 5-HTP with Luvox, a potent anti-depressant drug, similar to Prozac but more popular in Europe, 5-HTP improved 68% of depressed patients, as compared to 63% of those on Luvox.  In another study, 5-HTP eliminated anxiety symptoms in 58% of patients as opposed to 48% on  In terms of side effects, selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors like Prozac and Zoloft cause sexual dysfunction in 50 = 75% of users while 5-HTP studies show no sexual dysfunction and few other side effects. In one study, 5-HTP had fewer side effects than the placebo!!!  Since anti-depressant drugs, in some sensitive people, can induce an overload of serotonin called ‘serotonin syndrome’ characterised by feeling hot, high blood pressure, twitching, cramping, dizziness and disorientation, some concern has been expressed about the possibility of increasing the odds of serotonin syndrome with the combination of 5-HTP and an SSRI drug. However a recent review on the safety of 5-HTP concludes that ‘serotonin syndrome has not been reported in humans in association with 5-HTP, either as monotherapy (on its own) or in combination with other medications.’  Side-effects? Some people experience mild gastrointestinal disturbance on 5-HTP, which usually stops within a few days. Since there are serotonin receptors in the gut, which don’t normally expect to get the real thing so easily, they can overreact if the amount is too high, resulting in transient nausea. If so, just lower the dose. I have hopefully given you enough information in the above article to start lifting the dark cloud, for those of you who suffer with depression or know someone who does. This will be one of many articles on this very important subject. KEEP SMILINGJ and I hope Amino Relax and our new range of products help lift the dark cloud for you.

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