Depression
Traditional medicine treats depression and anxiety primarily with neurotransmitter drugs. The neurotransmitters that are manipulated by drugs include serotonin, dopamine, norepinepherine, and GABA (tranquilizers). The drugs mainly block the recycling of these brain chemicals so that they will continue to stimulate the brain. The drugs used have been linked to suicide. Many people do report feeling different on these drugs, which I would expect when you manipulate brain chemistry. Pharmaceutical companies report that they are treating chemical imbalances, the “cause” of depression and anxiety.
Natural health care also tries to treat the cause. In this case, how are neurotransmitters produced biochemically? These chemicals are made from proteins in our diet and require certain B vitamins and minerals to be synthesized or made. For example, serotonin is made from a particular amino acid, tryptophan, and it is converted from amino acid to a neurochemical by Vitamin B6, B3, folic acid and iron. These substances can be supplemented to your diet to achieve a therapeutic level of neurotransmitters…the natural way. Test your neurotransmitter levels to see if you might benefit from this type of therapy. (Brain Chemistry Lab)
Another consideration, in natural health care, is the stimulation of the brain itself. If the chemicals created naturally (or by drugs) stimulate the brain, wouldn’t brain stimulation help as well? “How is the brain stimulated naturally?” you might ask. The brain is stimulated by “stimulation” or sensory experiences, such as thought, smell, taste, sound, vision, touch and movement. Different areas of your brain are stimulated by different “stimulation.” For example, we might adjust or massage a person to “wake up” certain areas of the cerebellum and parietal cortex. Mathematical processing would stimulate the left cortex to a greater degree, and music would stimulate the right cortex. Organizing and planning stimulate the frontal lobes. Smells also stimulate the frontal cortex, and some people who have tried it notice a change in their mood with certain smells. So, these types of activities can be a great addition to normalizing brain function, and thus mood.
If you provide the right nutrients to make the chemicals and the right activities to stimulate the brain, depression and anxiety can lift without the use of drugs.
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