Natural antidepressants new & old....

Today's post: Friday, 2-22-2008

Here are the three new ones:

Recently, I did a post with the information that short sessions of vigorous exercise and taking 2,000 to 3,000 iu or a bit more each day of vitamin D have each been shown to be effective in fighting the winter blues, also known as SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder.

I really think well of these two methods as natural antidepressants. In today’s times many people get very little exercise & not much sunlight, even in the summer for some of us.

So these two methods clearly cure deficiencies for many people -- which may explain their effectiveness.

1. I particularly like the one that a short session of vigorous exercise works to make you feel better.

The most important reason is that it’s fast. You can do a session in 5 to 10 minutes which makes it a LOT easier to do in a busy life than an hour walk. I’ve taken an hour walk as exercise when I was depressed which may have made me feel better later; but it felt boring and didn’t do much at all for my mood right then.

But of most importance, the promise of doing a short session of vigorous exercise is that you can literally feel better in 10 minutes from when you start.

To make it vigorous, you have to focus on doing it enough to shut off or turn down stressful or depressing thoughts. You sharply increase circulation & oxygen flow to your brain. You increase certain neurotransmitters. And, you feel the effects enough as you recover afterwards to also help distract you from bad thoughts.

2. Taking 2,000 to 3,000 iu or a bit more each day of vitamin D is also a favorite of mine as it is really inexpensive to do. It only costs $5 to $7 for 100 capsules of 1000 iu of vitamin D3, the effective form. And, it’s now established that it helps prevent colds and other illnesses by boosting your immune system. Plus, that same immune system boost apparently helps prevent autoimmune diseases & all kinds of cancer.

Valuewise, taking vitamin D is like getting top of the line luxury car value for five or six dollars a month.

So, I really think well of these two ways to shut down depression or just feeling a bit blue.

They’ve always worked. But it’s only recently become generally known that they do. Even better, they both have abundant health benefits in addition to helping you feel better.

3. However, what if you are depressed enough it’s really severe? For mild depression or even moderate depression, you may do well with just the first two methods.

But if you clearly need more, wouldn’t it be nice to have a natural way to feel better that worked as well as the drugs doctors now tend to prescribe but without the side-effects and addictive qualities?


Much to my great shock, this week I found out there IS one.:

I found the article below in my Early to Rise email earlier this week.:

(It appeared on Tuesday, 2-19-2008.)
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

“The Spice That Makes You Smile

By Kelley Herring

The gentle waft of simmering bouillabaisse certainly puts a smile on my face. But the delightful aroma and taste isn't the only reason this dish can make you feel happy. In fact, one key ingredient could have as much mood-boosting benefits as a common anti-depressant.

Earlier research pointed to saffron, an ingredient in bouillabaisse, as a potential anti-depressant. And new research published in the journal Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry confirms this pricey spice's ability to alleviate the doldrums.

In the eight-week study, researchers compared saffron's anti-depressant activity to fluoxetine (the generic name for Prozac). Forty adults, meeting the criteria for major despair, participated. Group 1 patients received a capsule filled with 15 mg of saffron (C. sativus) morning and evening. Group 2 received 10 mg of fluoxetine morning and evening. At the end of the trial, researchers found that saffron had the same mood-boosting benefits as the drug.

So how much is 15 mg of saffron, anyway? That's less than a tenth of a teaspoon. Most saffron is sold by the gram, at about $15.

While you can season your paella or bouillabaisse with saffron, a good way to make this spice a mood-lifting mainstay in your diet is to mix it right into your favorite organic, chicken-based pre-made soups. Or brew a cup of Spicy Saffron Tea. Just add one teaspoon of saffron, four crushed cardamom pods, and three teaspoons of erythritol to four cups of boiling water. Steep for 20 minutes. Enjoy.

[Ed. Note: Kelley Herring is the founder and CEO of Healing Gourmet (www.healinggourmet.com), and is editor-in-chief of the Healing Gourmet book series..”

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Saffron is not cheap. But you clearly need very little to get the effect. So it might be doable.

Here are some natural ways to turn off depression that have been around for sometime.
1. Martin Seligman, PhD discovered something he called learned helplessness. He then decided to study the opposite.

The results were spectacular. And you can use his research to feel better. His book on it is called, “Learned Optimism.”

What he found is that people who are effective, sane, & proactive and are quite resistant to learned helplessness do is:

A) They tend to be very analytical, precisely accurate, and specific in thinking about bad things that happen. They look for the specific causes. They do NOT over-generalize that bad events will always happen or keep happening even if these specific causes are absent. Even better, they realize the causes are temporary and that it may be quite possible to cause the situation to improve. Their thinking about bad events is dramatically more accurate than the thinking of pessimists for these reasons. Educated people tend to be strong on this part of optimistic thinking.

B) They tend to take action to solve problems & to think of themselves as effective in solving problems. They think of good things as permanent and all encompassing & within their control to make happen. Interestingly, they do this even more than the facts of a situation would indicate. Often the people who are best at this are doers and street smart people.

The odds may be against them initially. And the solution they try first (or even second or third, etc) may not work. But they learn from what they try and often manage to achieve things that would otherwise be impossible. Their willingness to take action & be experimentally persistent, literally overcomes the statistical odds against them.

It’s worth learning to be good at these two factors. The depressions you feel will be rare and tend to be mild and of short duration if you do. And, research has established that people high in both factors also tend to be in better health, live longer, have more friends, & make more money than people who are low in them.

2. Early to Rise has spun off a weekly email called, Total Health Breakthroughs. It has additional & different health articles from those in Early to Rise.
Their email from this past Tuesday, 2-19-2008 had this Title:

Stop Suffering! How to Fight Depression Safely and Naturally

This lists many of the effective natural antidepressants that we’ve known about for a bit.

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,

visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"

Dealing with Depression? Try the Natural Route First


Consider this: You're lying on the couch, unable to motivate yourself enough to get up and get dressed. Everything seems pointless, hopeless, and dark. All you want to do is stare into space. There's a pill sitting on the coffee table a few feet in front of you that promises to make you feel 100 percent better and take your depression away.

And you can't muster the enthusiasm or energy to get up and get it.
That's the best -- and truest -- description of severe depression I've ever heard.
Depression is no picnic. Not only is it one of the greatest problems of our time, it's also potentially life threatening. Severe depression needs to be medically treated.

That said, many of us are suffering with what's called mild or moderate depression -- anything from "the blues" to a general feeling that some of the sparkle is gone from everyday life. For mild or even moderate depression, there are a number of natural remedies that are worth trying before going the pharmaceutical route. One of the best of those natural substances is 5-HTP.

The term 5-HTP stands for 5-hydroxytryptophan. It's the stuff out of which your body makes serotonin, one of the major players in a group of chemicals called neurotransmitters. These are chemicals that transmit information in the brain. Serotonin is known as a "feel-good" neurotransmitter -- low levels are associated with depression.

In fact, the biggest class of anti-depressant pharmaceuticals (SSRIs like Prozac) works by keeping serotonin hanging around the brain longer. In your body, the amino acid L-tryptophan converts to 5-HTP which then, with a little help from vitamin B6, turns it into serotonin.

Try 50 mg of 5-HTP three times a day and increase if necessary. A common dose for depression is 300 mg a day. Make sure you're getting enough vitamin B6 in your diet -- some of the better 5-HTP supplements (like 5-HTP Synergy) have some B6 built in.
St. John's Wort is a perennial herb with a long and honorable history of use for mild (or moderate) depression. It got some bad press in a loaded study1 back in 2002 which had the media gleefully proclaiming "St. Johns Wort is Ineffective." But what they didn't tell you was that the study tested the herb on people with severe depression who also didn't respond to even the strongest pharmaceutical drugs.
It's quite effective for mild depression. A meta-analysis in the British Medical
Journal2 reviewed 23 published trials on St. John's Wort involving more than 1,700 patients and found it effective for the treatment of mild and moderate depression.
The best preparations of St. John's Wort are standardized to contain 0.3 percent hypericin, and the recommended dose is 300 mg taken 3 times a day.

Then there's SAMe, arguably the most effective "natural" anti-depressant around, albeit one of the more pricey ones. About 70 percent of people with depression respond to SAMe according to Richard Brown, MD, author of Stop Depression Now. The best thing about it is that you'll know whether it's working within a week.

A common dose of SAMe for depression is 400 mg taken twice a day, though some people have taken up to 1600 mg. SAMe should be taken with B vitamins, and is not -- repeat not -- for people with bipolar disorder. SAMe usually comes in blister packs since it is highly sensitive to light and air.

Two other nutrients are also helpful for depression: fish oil and folic acid. Fish oil is currently being studied for its effects on mood. High doses (up to 10 grams a day) may produce a real effect, though many people will notice an improvement with as little as 2 to 3 grams a day.

Folic acid is also involved in mood, and high doses (5 grams or more) are absolutely worth a try. Since both folic acid and fish oil have other multiple benefits and are absolutely safe, they're worth adding to whatever natural treatment you're going to try.

If you're currently on an anti-depressant drug, do not just stop and switch to one of the "natural" treatments. Most antidepressants should be discontinued gradually and under the eye of a health-care provider. But if you haven't started on a drug yet, it makes a lot of sense to try the natural route first.

References

1. Hypericum Depression Trial Study Group. JAMA, 2002; 287:1807-1814.
2. British Medical Journal 1996 (Aug 3);313 (7052):253-258.

[Ed. note: Dr. Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and health. He's a board certified nutrition specialist with a Master's degree in psychology. Dr. Bowden is also a life coach, motivational speaker, former personal trainer and author of the award-winning book, Living the Low Carb Life.

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SAMe is expensive. I personally would try the other things first. And, St Johns Wort can reduce the effective dose of some drugs. But if you aren't taking drugs, it can be good. And, it's not expensive. 5htp can make you feel mellow and help you to go to sleep or get back to sleep. However, it might be less desirable to use in apart of your day when you need to be most alert and mentally vigorous.

I sincerely hope any of these methods you try work well for you.