Feel better, have more energy, and stay mentally sharp....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 10-18-2012

A.  There are many effective ways to feel better and turn off depression. 

1.  A psychologist called Stephen Ilardi wrote a book called, The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs.  He found that 75% of the people who made a good faith effort and kept going on all 6 things were no longer depressed. 

Regular socializing with people you treat well and getting enough sleep and getting regular exercise and eating wild caught fish or taking omega 3 supplements are some of the things on his list of 6.  Getting enough omega 3 helps people be less crabby and irritable which helps with socializing for example.

Completely STOPPING ruminating about bad things also helps.  One way to do that is write them down; decide which ones are worth fixing, what you’ll try to do to fix those and when. But then insisting on dropping any thoughts about it until time to do one of those things.  Vigorous exercise or contacting someone who is fun to talk to or simply doing a chore you are good at are things you can do immediately to help do that.

I found that often shorter bouts of vigorous exercise is more effective and works faster than longer and slower exercise.  They are certainly easier to fit into a busy day!

Treating almost everyone with courtesy and respect and looking for reasons to like people and for things they are legitimately good at help make socializing easier & also helps.

2.  It’s been found that periodically writing down things you are thankful for and a few events that went well each day is effective too.

3.  Being very analytical and precise in thinking about things that go wrong in order to see that they are actually limited in time and potentially fixable due to their causes also helps. 

Being optimistic about things you will attempt to do enough to try to get them done also is effective.  Oddly, it’s effective even if you overestimate your chances of success.  The one key way to make that effective is to be prudent and careful of doing risky thing when you do this.  One of my college professor said this:  “If you’re doing something risky, jump in feet first instead of head first!”  If you are optimistic enough to try actions and prudent in doing them, you’ll be more effective and have more control over your life even if your chances don’t’ look good to most people.

Martin Seligman, PhD studied this and people who are high in both these things are happier, have better health, have more friends and make more money than people who are low in both. 

They feel better and are less depressed and get over it when it happens more surely and quickly.  His book is called, Learned Optimism.

BUT some people are still depressed or in such harsh circumstances these things can sometimes not be enough.

As Rev Bob Schuler once wrote, Tough Times don’t last.

But what about people for whom better times and doing the things we list are still depressed.

The good news is that this is caused by damage to the brain or its nerves BUT we now know some things you can do to rebuild those nerves.

One of the reasons regular ex.

As Rev Bob Schuler once wrote, Tough Times don’t last.

But what about people for whom better times and doing the things we list are still depressed??

The good news is that this is caused by damage to the brain or its nerves BUT we now know some things you can do to rebuild those nerves.

One of the reasons regular exercise and vigorous exercise are effective is because doing them grows new nerves and brain cells due to your body releasing a growth hormone BDNF when you exercise.

The news is that there is one supplement by itself and a set of three supplement one of which is related to the first supplement that have been tested as effective in doing this job.

There is even a drug, Ketamine, that immediately stops severe depression by doing this.  But the effect only lasts a few days.

Starting the other things we list and these four supplements before it wears off may make even severe depression curable!

B.  Many of the things above also help you have more energy because you get more sleep and better sleep and feel less stressed.  But the first supplement we list also directly makes people taking it feel more energetic!

C.  There are many ways to prevent Alzheimer’s and other kinds  of mental decline that we have often posted about that prevent damage to your brain such as following a health oriented and heart safe eating plan and taking turmeric with black pepper and at least 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3.

And, we have posted about exercise as a way to prevent this due to its help in regrowing brain cells.

The very good news is that 3 of these supplements have tested at helping to prevent mental decline and even may reverse it in the early stages.  And the fourth is related to one of the three!

The first supplement is called, citicoline.  It was developed in Japan as a treatment for stroke victims that might boost their levels of choline in the brain and help grow new brain cells enough to improve things.  And, I’ve read it’s now in use in Europe for that purpose.

The best news is that it’s available as a supplement AND people who take it report their mood improves and their energy level goes up!

The other 3 were tested as helping to prevent or reverse mental decline and tested to show this was due to the growth of new neurons and an increase in their interconnections!

They were taken together and the man who set it up made a combination supplement of the 3 things that was used in the research.

But you don’t need his supplement because each of the three parts are available as supplements you can buy!  They are choline, DHA, and uridine.

Did I start doing this when I read that research?  Indeed I did!

I already took choline which is in the lecithin I take and the egg yolks I eat for breakfast.  (Now I’ll add citicoline too.) Choline also increases the protective HDL and protects your heart and brain circulation!

The second of the 3 parts is DHA.  It’s the omega 3 fraction that has the most brain benefits and is behind the reputation of fish as brain food.  (Note that the taking omega 3 supplements and eating wild caught fish like salmon in Dr Ilardi’s set of steps provides DHA in addition to EPA and other omega 3 oils!)  Due to DHA’s super reputation, I also take the DHA supplement by Jarrow each day in addition.

The third component, uridine, is hardly known but is apparently a growth initiator.  The really great news is that single heaping teaspoon of Brewer’s yeast mixed into water and drunk provides more than you likely need of uridine each day.

Solgar makes the Brewer’s yeast I take in this way and have since I read this research. 

Brewer’s yeast is also high in almost every amino acid protein component your body needs and B complex vitamins.  So you get extra health benefits.

AND taking the brewer’s yeast may work even better than uridine by itself to grow new brain cells because of this!

Note that if you are depressed and have low energy, many of the steps we list above are enough trouble to do it may be hard to get yourself to do them well enough.

So another way to use the four supplements is to start them first!

Then when your brain is working better and you feel a bit better and have more energy, do the other steps too!